


Fallen Hero 1.5

by Wesker20



Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén, Fallen Hero: Rebirth (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Divergence - In between Fallen Hero: Rebirth and Fallen Hero: Retribution, F/M, Flashbacks, Spoilers for Fallen Hero: Rebirth, Spoilers for Fallen Hero: Retribution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-18 23:40:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 66,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20321446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wesker20/pseuds/Wesker20
Summary: Set in between Fallen Hero: Rebirth and Fallen Hero: Retribution. Jeremy begins getting used to his new life as a villain until his past comes back to haunt him.





	1. Prologue

You play with your friends in the dead of night. You catch the ball on your glove and throw it back at another of your friends who proceed to throw it at another faster. But you have been playing for hours now and soon the parents of all of you call, ordering all of you to come back.

You say your goodbyes and proceed to walk to your house. Surrounded by the cold night and empty ally you walk faster and faster to reach your house. But just then a sound thunders into your ears. You turn to find nothing but the sound keeps echoing, louder, louder, louder, closer. The wall of a building crumbles as a body flies off and crashes against another wall. You take cover behind a trashcan as fast as possible.

A thumping sound thunders on your ears and you take a peek to see where it’s coming from. From the big hole steps out a dark figure, in a dark blue skintight suit that mixes perfectly with the night. On its head, it wears a featureless mask with what appears to be a mirror or something similar. You recognize this figure, you saw it on the news four months ago on that Hero Museum. But you don’t remember its name, only that it beat the Rangers.

“I warned you, you stood no chance against me,” it says, its voice a monotone one that you feel more than you hear, that causes your chest to shake, your heart to beat faster. You watch as the other guy stands up from the broken wall and says “Fuck you.” He’s bloodied, his suit is torn to shreds and he can barely stand. The figure walks closer and the guy throws a punch, a weak one. The figure catches the punch with ease and holds it as if mocking the man. You notice then the man’s other hand glowing yellow. The figure seems none the wiser and just as it gets ready to say something else, the man punches it in the face. You hear cracking sound and a monstrous growl as the figure almost stumbles. But quickly it turns back to the man and in one quick move it rips his arm off with little effort. You gasp as the man screams, tears in his eyes.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” you hear the figure say only that in-between cold monotone voice you hear a normal human-like voice. Then the figure grabs the man by the face and crushes it against the wall, nothing but a red mark left on it. You gasp louder this time and the figure turns to you. Half of his mask is missing and on that missing half, you see a man, a Hispanic man with a brown narrowed eye.

Your heart beats as the figure slowly walks closer to you. You try to move, you want to move, but amidst your racing heart and screams in your mind, your body remains unresponsive.

The figure stands tall over you and knees down, face to face with it you see your face reflected on the intact half of the mask, that of a scared ten-year-old, mouth hanging open and eyes wide open.

“Heh” you hear and the figure stands up and soon only darkness remains.

Your alarm wakes you up and you turn it off, wishing that you could sleep all day. But you know that if you tried your mother would just come and wake you up herself. You shower, wash your teeth, get dressed and go to eat to get ready to go to school.

As you eat you hear on the news about a dead hero on an alley not too far from your house. The hero was apparently killed by Los Diablos newest villain, Mastermind. The fight apparently took place around the neighborhood and according to sources, the villain was distracting the hero while his crew escaped. That fight must have been so cool you think. I wish I was there to see it. Oh well, maybe one day. You finish your breakfast and leave to school.


	2. I really Hate Polymorphs

On hindsight, you are starting to regret beating the Rangers so handily. In the last four months you have become the new target for most new and upcoming heroes seeking some recognition. Is not that they are any good or challenging, but you have seen bigger villains fall because they were swarmed by many weaker heroes. If you weren’t careful, one of them could get lucky and take you down. Like the one you fought last week. You beat him easily enough but he managed to sneak in a hard blow, destroying half of your mask. Mortum had a field day with that one. You killed him but still, if he had harnessed any more energy into that punch, he could have decapitated you.

So lately you have become a little paranoid; ok more than usual, keeping an eye out all around while your crew takes care of a small gang that decided to take your name as theirs. Yes, that is another problem: small-time criminals taking your name to have a better reputation themselves. This latest one has taken to calling themselves the Army of Mastermind. Besides how lazy that name is, they smear your reputation by randomly killing anyone who insults them. Not that you are against killing obviously, but killing a guy in the middle of the day, on a public street because he called you “a little bitch” is stupid and in turn makes you look petty. So a message to all other gangs who have your name is in order. And so you put all of your contacts to use and one of them gave you a tip of where their hideout was.

“Boss,” you hear Pelayo’s voice in your communicator.

“What?”

“Everything’s set.”

“No boosts or mods in there?” you question to make sure.

“None that we have noticed.”

“Good. Move in,” you order. The plan is simple. Get in, plant a small bomb and get out before anyone knows you are here. If anything goes wrong your crew has their orders to escape as fast as possible, no heroics or last-minute attempts for success. Or at least deep down you hope it goes that way. And then you hear the explosion.

“Pelayo, what’s going on? That came out early.”

“They knew we were coming boss.” You hear shooting and screams through the communicator.

“And I remember ordering you to escape if that was the case,” you answer, frustrated.

“We tried but-“

“Nehal,” you whisper with little surprise. The girl needs to learn self-control.

“And then Zaza followed up.”

You roll your eyes at that too. Too trigger happy for his own good. Thankfully Zaza is a great shot so at least no bullet will go to waste. “Get out of there now, that’s an order. And tell Nehal that if she doesn’t follow, I’ll go there and knock her out myself,” you finish. It would not be the first time she tries to fight it out to the bitter end. You admire her determination but you have more use for a living underling than a dead one.

You quickly jump down, using your rockets to soften your landing and run through the alley towards the gang’s hideout. You begin to wonder how they could have known you were coming. Someone tipped them off obviously, but who? Only you, Rosie, and the rest of the crew knew of this. Not even Mortum knew. Ok scratch that, she most likely did, but you doubt she would care or bother to do it. And even less if it meant endangering Jane. Rosie is too loyal for that and the crew would not sabotage their own mission. So who the hell tipped them off?

And then you feel the sudden thoughts of rage and you duck, dodging what appears to be some sort of long rope. You turn around and see someone standing at least twenty feet away in the shadows. And they have an unnaturally long arm, long enough to reach you. It takes you a second to put two and two together and realize that what you thought was a long rope is actually an arm and you roll to the side dodging the incoming attack from said arm. Having failed the arm retracts back to its owner and the owner walks out of the shadows.

“Didn’t think I would find you here. Lucky me,” says the figure in a feminine voice, a young feminine voice. As you stand up you eye her up and find a young woman, probably no older than Herald, dressed in a red and white skin-tight suit and a mask that covers most of her face except for her mouth and her long black hair. She stands in front of you, fists closed and eyes staring deep into you, and you sense a deep seethed rage directed at you. What the hell did you do to her?

“If by lucky you mean you’ll end up as a bloody pulp then sure, let’s go with that,” you answer with sarcasm. It’s nothing new for you, just another rookie biting more than they can chew.

“We’ll see about that asshole.”

“You know it’s rude not to present yourself. My name’s Mastermind,” you say making an elaborated bow. Might look like you are cocky and not taking her seriously… ok, the second half is true but the first half is not. You are simply trying to extend the conversation, confuse her, or piss her off. Either of those three will give you an advantage over her and see what she is about.

“And I’m about to kick your fucking ass,” she yells and both of her arms shoot forward, elongating and aiming at you. Pissed off it is. And she’s a polymorph. Shit.

You are long out of the way by the time the arms reach you. But then her arms quickly retract and she leaps forward turning into some sort of wheel and rolling at you fast enough that you need both the Rat King and your own abilities to get out of the way. Damn, she’s fast. Maybe a rookie but she knows how to use those powers. Shit. You really hate polymorphs.

They are arguably one of the most, if not the most, annoying enemies to fight against. They can stretch, twist and transform their body into almost anything they want. You cannot punch them or kick them unless you want to be trapped in their elastic bodies, and you can’t lock them in keys or locks as they either slip out of your grasp or turn those moves against you and lock you on one instead. Or both. And that’s just physically speaking, mentally speaking it is a whole other issue. Their minds are as chaotic and transformative as their bodies, you get in and you might never get out. You can sense some surface-level thoughts but that’s it. Anything else risks getting you trapped in their minds.

“Pelayo, I’m a bit occupied. Don’t wait for me, just go. I’ll meet you all at the hideout,” you whisper into the microphone.

“Boss, are you sure?”

“Yes. Now go,” you say with authority. A quick yes sir and now you have nothing to worry about. Well except for Polygirl over there. She quickly jumps from wall to wall and jumps at you, expanding her body until it resembles a sheet; a big, big sheet that threatens to cover and trap you, a sheet that you cannot dodge. You really hate Polymorphs.

“Got you,” she yells triumphantly until you rest the palm of your hand on her and activate it. Suddenly a small shock of electricity shoots out and the girl screams in pain. She lets you go and falls back. Just a little thing you asked Mortum to add just in case you found yourself surrounded by multiple enemies. It instantly paralyzes most people and heroes. But of course, polymorphs just love to spit in the face of that.

You flex your muscles trying to look as nonchalant as possible. “Listen I got better things to do, so how about we call it quits tonight and meet another day shall we?” you say. You are sure that will not work but it doesn’t hurt to try.

“You are not getting away!” she yells and launches herself at you. Oh great. You shoot your palm forward but she twists her body around you and instead tangles herself through your entire body, tying up your arms and legs. You shoot your rockets and fly both of you against a brick wall, crashing through it and knocking her down. Instantly your mind is swallowed up by the Rat King’s own as it tries to protect you. You soothe it, letting it know you are safe and sound. For now anyway, you have to get out of here fast. This girl is determined to get you for whatever reason. Huh, what is her reason?

“Hey I’m beginning to wonder, why do you want to get me so badly?” you ask taking the direct approach while mixing in a bit of mockery. She seems a lot more determined to get you than most other rookies you have fought. Not only that but you felt her rage before you first saw her and then again when she rushed at you. She really hates you.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You don’t even know who I am?” she says as if it should be obvious.

“I have far too many other, better things to do than to search up every rookie who thinks they are good enough to fight me, so no.”

“You arrogant son of a bitch. Do you even remember the hero you killed last week?” she says more pissed off and incredulous.

“What about him? Another rookie who thought he was big shit,” you say as her eyes narrow on you. Though you asked, you are starting to put all of the pieces together. And you do not like how that looks.

“He was… he was,” she tries to say, tears in her eyes.

And you catch the stray thought “Oh, boyfriend.” Shit. Should’ve known something like this would happen. “Alright listen up, he’s the one who rushed at me first ok? Is not my fault that he…” but your words fall on deaf ears as her hands grow, pick up two dumpsters and prepares to crush you with them. _I really, really hate polymorphs._

You rush out of the way but she throws one at you that catches you. You end up with a dumpster on you and through a brick wall. Thanks Mortum for her suit, you really appreciate it. You push the Dumpster out of the way to find yourself inside an abandoned building. You quickly come up with a plan, just lure her in and use the nanites to eat through a column and let the roof fall on her. It wouldn’t kill her but it will delay her for a while. Well, you hope so.

“Ok listen can we at least talk about it,” you say but she shoots another elongated arm at you and you dodge. “I guess that’s a no.” You dodge another incoming attack and position yourself just beside a column.

“You’ve caused enough pain already. There’s nothing to talk about,” she says.

Your eyes narrow on her so much you think she could see them behind your mask. “Kid, you have no idea what true pain really is,” you say and proceed to touch the column with your left hand. The nanites shoot out eagerly and devour the column. The girl gasps as she stares at the disintegrating column. You rush out of the way just in time as the roof collapses on top of her. The entire two stories building falls and you wonder if that was a bit excessive. Movement under the rocks change your mind and you decide to move. But just as you begin walking your communicator turns up and you hear Pelayo’s voice.

“Boss.”

“What is it now? Did Zaza or Nehal do something stupid again?” you ask wondering. First Polygirl over here and now something else.

“No, sir. Worst. We have a big problem.”

You hear someone scream a curse, a scream that can only belong to Nehal. “How big?” you ask.

“A big silver problem.”

Oh, Argent.

Shit.


	3. Three's a Crowd

You use your rockets as a boost to jump up onto a roof and run, trying to get a visual on both your crew and Argent. Yes, you find them in the street. A huge crowd has already formed around the battle but still keeps a distance. You wonder how long it will be before the media arrives, or the cops.

Both Zaza and Pelayo are shooting Argent from a distance, Ward seems to be stalking her, perhaps to ambush her, and Nehal is shooting her with her shotgun. It doesn’t take long before Argent closes the distance on your youngest underling and punches her away with little effort. Nehal crashes against the wall right under you and you decide to finally join in and jump down, no way they’ll make it against her without you.

“I’m not here for you idiots. Where’s your boss?” you hear Argent say in a commanding tone. Just then Nehal notices you besides her and smiles.

“Yeah, you were saying bitch? You are fucked,” Nehal yells at Argent, catching the ranger’s attention and in turn alerting her of your presence.

“Finally, I was getting tired of dealing with the small fry,” she says looking straight at you.

“Who are you calling small-“ Nehal begins but you cut her off.

“Get out of here. I’ll handle her,” you say in your most commanding tone.

“What? But boss-“ Nehal begins but once again you cut her off, this time with a wave of your hand.

“I gave you an order. Get out of here. She’s mine,” you finish, leaving no room for argument. Nehal grudgingly nods and joins the others to escape.

“You are a hard person to find,” Argent says with a smirk.

“What can I say, I’ve been busy,” you respond in a tone that conveys your own smirk.

“Too busy for little old me?” she says as the claws on her left hand extend.

“I’m making time now, aren’t I,” you say. When did Argent decide to banter with her enemy? She normally just goes straight to the point.

“That you are,” she says and with that, she leaps in, fast, too fast, but not faster than you. You sidestep the claw attack and shoot a punch of your own but she evades it with little effort and changes her attack into a kick, one that you dodge as well.

You both take a step back, stopping any momentum you might have had. That was just a test, an assessment. You were trying to feel one another, and neither of you left a clue or a hint of what you can do.

“This should be fun,” you say while taking a stance.

“You said it,” Argent responds as the claws on her right hand extend and she takes her own stance.

Argent jumps in while you remain stationary. She throws a right; you dodge and shoot a right of your own. She dodges it and spins on one leg, preparing to use her other in a kick. You duck under the incoming kick and shoot a fist upwards. She leaps over you and lands behind. You waste no time and leap forward, knowing that another claw attack was coming. Failing that attack off balances her. You turn and use your rockets to barrel forward while she is still off-balance. However, she recovers faster than you expected and prepares to meet you head-on but you drop a smoke bomb blinding you both. Despite the blindness you know where she is, and so you tilt and fly past her and land several meters away. She turns around to face you with a hungry smile adorning her face.

Both of you stare at each other, daring the other to make the first move. A battle of wills, the first one to attack will dictate the pace of the fight, but the second can counter and turn the fight on their favor. Neither of you make a move, like two statues you remain motionless, your eyes clashing with hers, following one another. You pass dozens of scenarios through your mind, the Rat King helping you to process the information faster, but none lend themselves to complete victory, merely a small advantage that may or may not mean much. You wonder if she is going through the same thing, trying to figure out how to beat you without giving you an inch, it is clear you both are ready for the other. You both twitch at the same time and freeze again. Her smile grows as she eyes you up like a snake, waiting for the right moment. You would lie if you said you weren’t smiling yourself. Your heart pumps faster and faster, sweat slips down your forehead, your body threatens to lunge forward without your command.

You remember this feeling, the feeling of being in a tight spot with an enemy who is also on the same position. If one moves without being prepared the other will gut them. You have been there plenty of times. Like playing a mental version of chess, you each make a mental move to try and defeat the other. You have always relied on having a plan, and a backup, you hate it when things don’t go according to plan, and most of the time it leaves you frustrated. But then comes the exceptions, those few times where the feeling of being in this type of danger invigorates you, where you can really put your mind to the test and find out if you are smart as you think you are. This moment fits that perfectly. You are both hunters and preys, waiting for the other to make the wrong move; your eyes solely focused on her, and her eyes solely focused on you.

And soon you pay the price of getting caught up in the moment as you feel a big fist hit you square in the stomach. You catch a look of surprise from Argent before crashing against a car. You shake your head trying to piece together what just happened. Someone punched you, obviously, but it wasn’t Argent, if she had made any move you would have seen it coming. No this was someone else. Your eyes settle on that someone, standing in front of you and blocking your view of Argent, a figure panting and dressed in a red and white skintight suit. Oh goodie, it’s the polymorph girl.

“Ouch,” you say with sarcasm if only to not let her know that that actually caught you off guard.

“Didn’t think you would get away that easily, did ya,” she says with barely held back rage. Her suit is roughed up and dirty in some places, but overall she looks no worse for wear. Glad to know that dropping a two-story building on her did absolutely nothing. You are going to have a conversation with Mortum later about how to deal with polymorphs.

The girl turns to look at Argent and say “Hey there. Hope you don’t mind me tagging in,” she turns back to you and finishes with “I have a personal stake with this asshole.” Argent is just giving her a look that can only be interpreted as ‘what the hell do you think you are doing.’

“You know they say two’s a company and three’s a crowd. So why don’t you just step aside and let us adults talk,” you tell her as you flex your arms.

She opens her mouth to say something but Argent cuts her off. “He’s right,” she says and walks past the girl. “This is a dance of two, not three. So get lost.” The girl stares at her for a second before speaking.

“He killed a hero, my boyfriend,” she yells at Argent.

Argent ignores her and continues walking towards you. “Hey, stop ignoring me,” the girl yells, reaching out to Argent. Argent turns on her heel and stares at the girl in the eye. You have been on the receiving end of that stare before so you know how intimidating it is.

“Get lost. This is the big leagues. Your boyfriend should have thought about that before he fought,” she tells the girl and turns back to you.

“Don’t be so harsh on the kid. I’m pretty sure you were a rookie once too,” you tell Argent.

“Oh, so you are saying you are not a rookie either?” she answers as if catching you in the act.

Damn it. You just gave her a clue to your identity.

“I’m not stopping,” you hear the third unlikely member of your trio. And before you can say a retort your face is covered in its entirety and your hands are tied. You then hit the ground face first. “You’ll pay for what you did to Shine,” she whispers in your ear before lifting you up and tossing you against several cars. Pretty sure you catch flashes of cameras in the process. Seems like the media is here, and you are not looking good.

You stand up and say “Listen, I’m sorry about your boyfriend ok? He ambushed and I sort of overreacted,” but you are forced to dodge to the side as another fist comes flying down your way. You begin tuning the small taser weapon you used earlier, pushing it to its limit. You are pretty sure the weapon won’t survive this but you are running out of options. The girl shoots another punch, her arm extending almost ten meters. But just as the fist gets ready to land you notice it stops. When you look closer you see a silver hand wrapped around the wrist. Argent. The silver ranger looks at you first, “Don’t think this is for you,” she says before turning towards the girl. With little effort, Argent pulls the arm violently causing the girl to be pulled and basically fly right into Argent’s fist. The girl flies and crashes on the street several meters away.

“You know that’s not going to do much right,” you tell Argent standing side by side with her. Big mistake, she does not miss a beat and punches you in the face, sending you flying and crashing against some cars. You groan as you stand up. “Cheap shot,” you say.

“Not my fault you let your guard down,” she responds.

You look at her and chuckle. “Look who’s talking.”

Argent does not get a chance to retort as the girl covers her face and ties her arms, much in the same way she did to you. And just like you early, Argent gets to kiss the ground. But just as the girl reforms in front of Argent you sneak in and grab her by the back of her neck with your right hand, electrocuting her. Her screams are ear piercing and you quickly toss her aside. Your right glove sparkles, an indication that the weapon is not doing good. You bring up your HUD and analyze the weapon. Not going to last more than two more shocks. Better make them count. The girl stands up holding the back of her neck. You notice a slight burn. Argent stands up and stares at the girl. You get ready to get punched again but it seems the silver lady has decided that a temporary truce is better. Still, it does not hurt to ask. “Are you going to punch me again?”

“You are not going to make me say it,” she responds.

“Can’t blame a girl for trying,” you answer with a chuckle. “Truce?”

“Truce,” she answers with a sigh. One small victory for you. Let see if the rest of the night goes as such.

The girl stares at both of you with rage. You almost feel pity for her, losing her boyfriend and coming to fight you only to end up having to fight Lady Argent and you. But alas she should have understood how this life goes. You know you do. She extends her arms and legs and darts forward. Argent takes point while you hang back, making sure the girl does not pull any surprises. Argent does much better than you did against the girl, evading all of her attacks like a ballerina, twisting and turning on her heels, feet light on the ground. Never once does the girl come close to tying her up. At the same time, the girl tries some back attacks but you stop her before she does anything, punching and kicking away and if she gets you, Argent pulls you away before anything happens. It’s a familiar feeling, having someone watching your back like that. You wonder for a second if that’s why you have a crew, why you try to keep them safe so much. Why did that feeling have to go… You shake your head, this is no time for pondering, you have a polymorph to beat. And later a lady of steel.

The girl launches herself at you again and manages to tie you up. But just then Argent grabs her and soon all three of you are in a tug of war. In the struggle, your right hand comes free and you use that chance to shock the girl once more. She screams as her body goes back to normal. You make sure to shock her again even if it means destroying the taser. You want to make sure she stays down.

After a couple of seconds, the girl falls on all fours, panting. She looks up to you and tries to rush you again but Argent knocks her out with one final blow.

Immediately you leap back, creating some distance with Argent. It seems she had the same idea and both of you stand meters apart.

“Heh, ready for round two?” you ask with little care. You are tired but you’ll be damned if you let Argent see that.

“You know I am,” she answers with a smirk on her face.

Without any more talk, you both take a stance, Argent bringing out her claws once again. Funny, she retracted her claws and fought the girl without them. Was it because she thought she didn’t need them or because she didn’t want to?

Then you hear the sirens and see the lights. You both groan at the interruption. “Well, that’s my cue.”

“Oh no you don’t,” Argent begins but by the time she finishes you leap up, turn on your rockets and land on one of the rooftops.

You look down on Argent, frustration written all over her face. “I’m sorry we couldn’t finish it. But hey there’s always a new day. Sayonara,” with that you drop a smoke bomb and escape, ready to head to your hideout and rest. You have a long day tomorrow.


	4. Old Friends

“Ma chérie, what did you do?” Mortum says while staring at the destroyed taser weapon.

“Me nothing. My boss…” you drag out the silence for a second before finishing with “they fought a polymorph.” Mortum looks at you with raised eyebrows as if a sudden understanding just hit her.

“Oh. Well, that’s understandable,” she says while staring at the weapon again. “You want me to fix it?”

“I want you to make it better. More powerful without frying itself.”

Mortum scratches her chin as she thinks. “I could change the power source. You can get it for cheap but it will be bigger. A battery of the same size would be considerably more expensive.”

“You know money is not a problem. Make it the small source.” Almost as if on cue, Mortum turns around and goes to her table.

“If you are willing Ma chérie, it will only take a couple of hours.”

Good to know you think. “By the way,” you begin as you head towards her and walk around the table to face her. “Do you have any information about said polymorph?”

“Maybe, but you are going to have to describe them to me, I’m no psychic.”

“five-six, probably five-seven, long black hair, thin and wears a red and white skin-tight suit.”

Mortum raises her head up for a second as if checking up a mental list. “Red Doll. Doll, for short.”

“Never heard of her.”

“You wouldn’t. She and her partner, The Shine, have only been at this for a couple of months. Newcomers. Right mindset too. It’s better to begin with a partner than alone.” She goes back to working on the taser.

“More like was a good mindset. Mastermind killed Shine last week. Now Doll wants payback.” Mortum chuckles but does not say anything. Probably thinking the same thing you are, Doll is letting her emotions control her and now she’s going after someone above her league. Or so you thought. She did hold her own against you, to say that you got lucky would be an understatement. “Anything else you might have on her. Most of my contacts couldn’t even give me a name.”

“Same boat as you ma chérie. You know how most villains work. They don’t pay attention to newcomers until they become a problem. So very little information on them. On the one hand that’s the advantage of being new.”

And a stupid habit if they ask you. It is precisely for that reason that many heroes get the drop on the top villains many times. They let those heroes grow and become threats. And then they are whining why they lost. “Well, she’s a newcomer who held her own against my boss. And Lady Argent.” You emphasize that last part as if trying to get a reaction out of the doctor.

You do, she raises her eyes to meet yours. “At the same time?” you nod. “Huh, well there you have it ma chérie. It wouldn’t be long now before people start looking her way. Especially if she begins stirring up trouble while searching for your boss.”

“Even so, there’s still the trouble of fighting her. That taser gave her a good shock but according to my boss, Argent was the one who finished it. So any advice?”

“Ice,” she says without even raising her face.

“Ice?” you echo, not exactly sure what she means.

“True, ice is bad for everyone, but polymorphs, in particular, have a nasty problem with it.”

You stare at her with curiosity. Once she notices she begins explaining.

“A polymorph’s molecules are always in flux, in movement, barely kept together. That is what gives them their elasticity. But freeze them over and the polymorphs are left effectively powerless. Or well it should, in theory.”

“In theory,” you repeat with a frown.

“Polymorphs are rare ma chérie, is not like I can get one to test it out. Dead specimens alone cost a fortune. Enough that I could build your boss twenty identical suits and still have money to spare with how much they cost.”

You sigh. This right here is why you hate fighting polymorphs. Any and all lack of information puts you at a severe disadvantage against them and no matter how hard you try they can get the drop on you without you realizing it. They can be the absolute worst fighters in the world and still kick your ass.

“Can you build an ice gun too that will fit on the suit?” you finally say. You are going to need all the weaponry you can get. Mortum raises her face to meet yours again, one eyebrow raised.

“I could. But that will cost a bit more on top of the taser. And it may take more than a couple of hours.”

“Like I said, money’s not a problem. Do it”

“You are sure your boss will like this?” she asks with slight worry. She has probably worked with other villains that didn’t like having their weapons tampered with. But you are not as possessive. A suit is just a suit, a tool for your plans, nothing more, there’s no need for sentimental value.

“I know they will.” The certainty of your answer scares even you.

“Understood ma chérie. Just give me a week. Maybe two.” she says with a neutral tone, not giving any emotion away. You nod and bid your goodbyes but just as you get ready to step out Mortum speaks. “I don’t make it a habit of getting into others personal lives ma chérie, but if you don’t mind me asking, why are you so loyal to them?”

“Because they saved my life,” the answer comes out before you can even think. What the hell was that? It’s a good excuse, technically not a lie, and it serves as a very good reason. Still, it came out even more genuine than you expected.

“How so?”

“Without them, I would have rotten in a hospital bed. Probably would be dead by now. They gave me a second chance. I owe them that.”

You see a flicker of sympathy in her eyes, brief as it is, but you see it staring at your puppet, at you. “Understandable. But remember, loyalty like that can be used, manipulated.”

Jane, you, nods. “I’ll keep that in mind.” You turn around and head outside, you got far more things to work on. There’s still one more place for you to go. Or rather there’s one more place for Jeremy to go.

**Later that afternoon.**

You arrive at the Rangers HQ, staring at it as if it was a dangerous cave with a hungry monster waiting for you inside. Only you no longer feel that way. Four months ago, when Ortega brought you here to help with Argent, that’s what you felt like you were walking into that cave and that monster would devour you. But you managed to step out of there alive, unharmed. Now… now you can stroll into it without a care in the world. It’s so much fun, you beat them, destroyed them. And yet here you are, in their stronghold, with them none the wiser. It takes all of your effort to not smile as you enter. The receptionist recognizes you almost immediately and sends you on your way to the visitor’s area as she passes on the message to Ortega. So many times have you come here that the layout of the first floor and the walk to the visitor’s area has been imprinted in your mind. You wonder if you could eventually get access to other areas but Chen will probably shoot that down faster than Ortega’s nagging.

As you arrive Ortega’s already there, looking as smug as ever and holding a cup next to the fridge. “You know sooner or later people will start getting ideas again,” she says teasing already.

“Oh so you mean that the media would dare to make something out of nothing?” you say with fake shock.

“And like that, you ruined the joke.”

“What makes you think that wasn’t my goal?” She punches you slightly on the shoulder before gesturing you to sit.

“So what brought you out of your cave?” she says, still in teasing mode.

“Not much. Just came to check how things were going here. Your numbers aren’t doing very well.”

Ortega chuckles and says “I know. PR has been cranky lately, screaming in our ears.”

“Let me guess,” you clear your throat and continue. “We need you out there. The public needs to see their heroes together. Stop wasting time and get out there’” you continue imitating them as Ortega breaks into laughter. You were present during several of their arguments back in your Sidestep days. The days where you would just sit with Anathema and crack jokes with one another as the PR guy ranted on and on.

“Pretty much. Though you forgot the part where they fumble their words while Angie glares at them.”

“Speaking of Argent. Did you heard?” you say. Ortega’s groan is all you need to know she has, and she’s not exactly happy.

“I had a chat with her about it.”

“And?” you ask.

“You can’t see it but I have a bruise on my stomach.”

You clear your throats as if imagining how much that hurts. Not that you have to, you know how that feels. “It can’t be so bad, can it? I mean it wouldn’t be the first time the Rangers have a minor conflict with other heroes.”

“You are right, but we don’t team up with bad guys when it happens.” There’s a certain venom in that last statement as if she wants to say more but stops short of just that.

“How’s the girl doing?”

“Red Doll? Fine. Pissed off and almost picked another fight with Angie but fine.”

“Red Doll?” you say with fake obliviousness. You want to know what they know.

“Yeah, she’s new. We have a file on her just in case we want to recruit her. Though to be honest I doubt she would accept an invitation any time soon.”

“You said it. Argent laid the smackdown on her.” Ortega looks at you puzzled. Shit, you slipped up there. “From what I’ve heard,” you add hoping to deflect.

Ortega nods and says “Poor girl lost her boyfriend last week. All because of that cabrón.”

You look at her for a moment. She wants to talk about him, about Mastermind, about you.

“What’s the deal with that guy. Mastermind I mean.”

“Well at first I thought they were just a newcomer, looking to make a name for themselves. I honestly thought they got lucky the first time. But the more I run the museum through my head,” she stops wondering.

“What?” you ask with genuine curiosity. You want to know what she thinks, what she may or may not have on you.

“This guy’s a pro. They aren’t just any newcomer; they know what they are doing. They have experience.” She stares at you as if seeking some sort of confirmation. If you had to guess, this is not her theory, but Steel’s. You should have expected that from him, you were always equally smart, a fact you are not particularly keen on admitting, but if you believe in their position you could figure out this much you should have expected Steel to do the same.

“What you are saying is that they are, what? A villain who changed their shtick?”

“Or maybe a hero too,” Ortega says. You stare at her in the eyes, you see no accusatory glance, no suspicion, nothing. Just honest wonder.

You lean back on the chair, pretending to consider the possibility.

“Honestly it wouldn’t be the first time,” she says and takes a sip. She’s right, many heroes have turned to the dark side before, many of them turning out to be more dangerous than the normal villains. Even some Rangers have. This was before your time but according to Anathema, they had a member named Karma who had the power of probability manipulation. She turned bad and nearly killed all of the rangers before she disappeared without a trace. You always wondered if she was taken by the prime directive but never bothered to investigate. It’s not your problem. Still, you can see the mourning on Ortega. If she was talking about someone, it was probably Karma.

“Anyway, enough about that. How are you doing? You look much better,” she says suddenly, looking at you with a smile.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, you don’t look as grumpy as you used to.”

“What are you talking about, I’m always grumpy,” you say with fake annoyance and your arms crossed. After a moment you both laugh a bit. It’s so easy, to just lay back and talk and laugh with her like it used to be. Just you, Ortega, Anathema, and even Steel, just sitting there after a job well done.

Your thoughts are interrupted as you feel someone pass by you and towards the fridge. Argent. You are starting to wonder if there’s some god up there screwing with you. Maybe one day you’ll go take a piss and suddenly hear Argent outside your apartment with how much you bump into her. She seems to not even notice you, and if she does, doesn’t seem to care. Both of you stare at her as she opens the fridge and searches. “Hungry?” Ortega asks smiling.

“Dying,” Argent answers with the most pissed off tone you have ever heard her speak in. Then again she seems to always be pissed off. She closes the fridge and walks right past you with at least, ten snacks.

“You know stress eating is not good for you,” you say jokingly, but she seems to ignore you. You look back at Ortega and say “is she ever going to stop treating me like I’m not here.”

“Eh, give her a couple of weeks. She’ll come around.”

“I’ve been coming here for four months.”

“How long did it take you to finally stop ignoring me when we first met?”

You do not answer. Ortega nagged you for months until you finally gave up. You cross your arms again and gruff making Ortega chuckle.

“Where’s Herald by the way? Last time I was here he could not leave my side,” you ask, less out of curiosity and more to change the subject.

“Handling the media. Giving a press conference. You know the usual.”

“It has to do with the fight?” Ortega nods. Of course it does.

“How’s he dealing with the whole thing?” you ask.

“Surviving,” is all she says about it. “You know, I was thinking maybe you could-“

“No.” you cut her off. She really does not know when to give up. This is the eight-time she tries to ask you to come back.

In any event, you finish the conversation here. You have what you came for. The rangers suspect that Mastermind is a veteran and Red Doll is apparently good enough the Rangers have been considering her for recruitment. Neither of those two things are good news. So you give your goodbyes and go. Time to plan out your next move.

**Night.**

Sitting on your bed you think about the events two nights ago. There are many things to consider. Argent was clearly after you, and so is Red Doll. Then there’s the Army of Mastermind; someone tipped them off your crew was coming and although they got out of there alive, it doesn’t change the fact that whoever did it may try it again. And you have to be prepared for that. But how do you fight a mystery foe? Suddenly one of your phones rings, the Mastermind phone. Only Pelayo and Rosie have that number and they are ordered to only use it in emergencies.

“Yes,” you say, your voice changed on the other end of the line to sound like your monotone heart shaking voice that comes out of your mask.

“Hello there Mastermind.” That’s neither Rosie nor Pelayo.

“Who is this?” you ask in your most commanding tone.

“Already forgot about me huh? I don’t blame you, last we saw each other, Alpha was re-educated, and you escaped.”

Your eyes open wide open. Alpha, you haven’t heard that name in well over a decade, not since, since… your days in the Farm. She was your leader, the leader of your unit, another re-gene. And, like Ortega, you cared about her.

“Who. Is. This?” You say with barely restrained rage. This person knows, they know who, what you are. They know about your past, enough that they know about Alpha.

“Let’s just say I’m a fan of yours.

“What type of fan?”

“The type that likes to see how you handle yourself.”

“You tipped off the Army,” you say. You don’t know how but you did. If they know this much, they must have known about your plans too.

“And I also tipped the polymorph too. And the Ranger. And you.”

“What?” you ask. What do they mean? They tipped you off too?

“I’m the one that passed on the information onto your contacts. The one who gave you the location of the Army.”

“Why?”

“I’ll let you know. Eventually. For now, just turn on the TV.”

You do as they say not much choice on the matter. Immediately you see an entire street filled with people, not just any people, gang members. The Army of Mastermind.

“How do you like your Army o great Mastermind?” the voice says with mockery.

“I don’t want it. They are loud and disorganized.”

“Then why don’t you organize them? I’m pretty sure they’ll follow you.”

“Too risky. Too many mouths to keep quiet.”

“Aaah, so a control freak is what you are. Good to know. Alright, Beta-“

You cut it off “Don’t call me that,”

“Mastermind, All I want is to see you shine.”

“Somehow I doubt that.”

“Trust issues? I don’t blame you.”

You clench your fist, squeeze the phone and ask once again “Who. Are. You.?”

“I’m the voice of your consciousness,” and the line goes dead. You lay down the phone and stare at the TV. Riot, the Army is rioting, burning cars everywhere, police overwhelmed. This will bring unwanted attention. But that’s not what has you sweating, that’s not what has your heart beating a million miles a second, is the fact that they knew, they know about your past, who you were, who you really are. Beta…

Unit Beta 010, led by unit Alpha 203 of the infiltration and extraction unit, also known as the Cuckoos. Your unit, the unit you broke apart, that you destroyed, by making one stupid mistake: caring.


	5. Memories

**Several Years Ago: Plaza de Cataño, Puerto Rico. 6:40 pm**

“Beta, you have eyes on the target?”

“Affirmative. He’s in the plaza,” you answered to Alpha, sitting relaxed while you followed the target with your eyes: a Puerto Rican in his early thirties. He was part of another dissident group decrying boosts and the hero drug, one of their top members. Normally they were ignored but lately, they had taken to blowing up pharmaceuticals and murdering boosted and people who defended the boosted.

“Zeta, any others around?” Alpha asked in her usual neutral demeanor, always focused whenever on a mission.

“Nothing so far,” Zeta responded, the teleporter of the group and eagle’s eyes. Because of his abilities, he was normally the one to scout and run reconnaissance of an area. Not a single thing escaped him.

“Kappa, have you managed to close the distance?”

“Negative, crowd’s getting in the way,” she responded. Kappa, the only blue one on the team as she can turn invisible. Normally the one to get the closest to your targets, or even abduct them. But alas, Marcos Rodriguez chose a perfect time to get out. It was the local festivities and the plaza was full.

“Roger that. Beta move in, I’ll meet you when you catch up with him.”

“Roger that,” you answer and stand up. You put on a ‘Get out of my way aura’ and as you got close to the many people, they obeyed the telepathic command.

He stopped at a local shop to buy some food. You stopped, keeping a distance, but he seemed to notice. He began walking faster. You groaned and began moving too.

“Alpha, we got a problem. I think he saw me.”

“Roget that. Corner him.”

“Understood. I’ll guide him to an alley deeper into town and away from the crowd.”

“I’ll meet you there. Over and out.”

You picked up your pace as he did the same and soon anybody who had even glimpsed could have noticed that you were chasing him. Thanks to the festivities, however, they didn’t seem to. You told Zeta to make sure to block any escape routes he could have taken and slowly he took the streets you wanted him to take. But still, he was outrunning you, even with your aura people could not get out of the way fast enough. You remember cursing under your breath and wondering where the hell Alpha was.

Finally, you got him into a lone street and just as he was about to turn on a corner a figure appeared at the end and grabbed him by the throat with little effort. That was Alpha, super strong and durable. She has boasted that she can lift a skyscraper though you’ve never seen her do it so you have your doubts. Then again she never boasts without having the means to back it up so you never rule it out either.

“Got you smart guy,” she said as she pushed him against a wall. She was wearing a jacket and long jeans and had her red hair in a ponytail. A smirk adorned her face.

You step in beside her with a softer smirk looking at your target and say “You are coming with us, Mr. Rodriguez.”

**Small house owned by the Prime Directive branch of P.R. 8:00 pm**

Zeta finished tying up the man while Kappa stayed on guard outside. Alpha ordered him to go accompany Kappa while you and she remained in the room with the man.

“Váyanse pal carajo demonios. No les voy a decir nada,” he said in his most pissed off tone. You rolled your eyes at the comment.

“How much are you going to need with him?” Alpha asked calm and unworried.

“Two, three hours tops. That should be enough to rip the information out,” you answered with a bit of cockiness.

Alpha put a hand on your shoulder and said “Alright, I’ll go take a nap. Let me know when you are done.” You nodded, never taking your eyes off of the man.

“No te me peges demonio. ¿Me oiste? No te me pegues,” he screamed with all his strength.

“Nadie va a escucharte. Así que ¿por qué no haces esto más fácil y te callas?” You told him with little care. He did not listen of course and kept screaming until you punched him and knocked him. Right then and there you began your job, snooping in his mind, seeking for the actual target, his brother Jeremy Rodriguez. The two brothers were the current leaders for the “Los guardianes de la humanidad,” terrorist group. Marcos branch operated here in P.R. Normally the prime directive doesn’t bother too much here even though they have a base, but when the older brother went to the main country, specifically to Los Diablos, and began expanding the branch of the group there and causing major problems, he and his younger brother here became targets. You were seeking the location of Jeremy and take him out, that was your mission.

**10:30 pm**

“He’s deeper into the municipality, in the neighborhood called “Amelia.” You said to the hologram of your handler, Vanessa Trevor and Dr. Frank Borg, your creator. Alpha stood beside you, hands behind her back.

“That’s a risk,” Trevor said, one hand on the chin. Indeed it was, any slip up could devolve the chase into a fight, one that could spread through the neighborhood and cause some casualties.

As you were about to add to that Alpha moved forward towards the hologram and said “Not for us Ma’am. We can get in and get out before anybody knows we are there.”

You looked at her and she looked back with a smirk and a wink. She was always one step ahead in a conversation even when she was not speaking, you envy that but like her all the more because of it.

Mrs. Trevor stays with one hand on her chin and the other one on her shoulder while thinking things through. Although anybody else would have ordered you to proceed, she prefers to not risk you unnecessarily. “Maybe we could, but it still risky.”

“Then we send in reinforcements,” you heard another voice say and a man in his fifties entered the hologram projection. General Franklin Slyther, in all his uniformed, medal covered, annoying glory. “IE squad, prepare for the arrival of extra units.”

Mrs. Trevor turns to talk to him and say “General that would simply escalate the risks even more.”

“Jeremy Rodriguez has evaded capture for too long and needs to be apprehended immediately. I believe the risks are worth it.”

Just then Alpha spoke out. “With all due respect General, they are not. My team has better possibilities on our-“

“Mrs. Trevor tell your unit to remain silent until it is addressed,” he said in his frustrating dismissing tone. So frustrating in fact you could not hold back and decided to step in. But just as you did Trevor looked at you, giving you a clear message to stand down. And you did, but both you and Alpha shared a glance that said it all; you really hate this guy.

After the debrief is over, you are told to stand by and wait for the reinforcements, receive a file on the target, and to keep the prisoner too for further interrogation of course, because nothing makes things any easier than keeping a prisoner who might try to escape alive and well. Once the hologram disappeared Alpha turned to you. Her eyes filled with sympathy. “Don’t worry about it, we’ll be fine. We always pull through,” she said in her softest tone.

You turned to her, wondering what to say. “Yeah, I just wish the higher-ups made our job easier instead of harder,” you finally said as you took a look at the file. A man in his later thirties, broad shoulders, probably bigger than you.

“C’ mon don’t be a downer. We are used to it by now,” she said as she too took a look at the file. Sadly you have.

“Point still stands.”

“Point still irrelevant.”

“You really want to do this?”

“Yep. Afraid I’ll beat you again?”

You simply chuckled at that. She does always win your little debates, normally by already knowing what you were going to say. If you didn’t know any better you’ll say she was a telepath too, but alas she simply that good at reading people.

“He sort of look like you, you know,” she said teasingly and lightly punching you on the shoulder.

“ow. Remember you have super strength. And no, he looks nothing like me. Look at those shoulders,” you said, faking offense.

“Yeah but he has that frown you always have,” she began and closed the distance between the two of you to show you. “See? Same exact frown.”

“No, it isn’t. I don’t even frown,” you shot back.

“Course you do. You are always grumpy for some reason.”

“I’m not. I’m always cheerful and positive, just like you,” you said as you put on your best smile.

“Yeah, that looks totally out of place,” she shot back and began chuckling, or more like holding a laugh back.

You put on an exaggerated hurt expression and said “You are mean,” and you both laugh a bit. Then Alpha took a good look at the file and looked up again to you.

“Jeremy,” she said wondering. You put on a confused look, wondering yourself what she means. “It fits.”

“What?” you asked confused.

“Jeremy, it fits you.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“Yes it does and you are sticking with it.”

“I already have a name.”

“Right because unit Beta 010 sounds so good,” she said with sarcasm so subtle if it was a car it would awaken everyone.

“Of course it does unit Alpha 203.”

You continued arguing back and forth about it but eventually, you relented. As much as you argued against it, you did like it. You’ve always wanted a name of your own, ever since you began exploring the world in your numerous missions. Though it did make you feel somewhat different from the others. The other re-genes always referred to you and each other by their unit names. It wasn’t until you were grouped with Alpha and Zeta that you felt more at home, they felt the same way somewhat, and so you three began calling one another by your series name, as a way to distinguish yourselves. That and you three really found it annoying saying your full names all the time.

“Fine but don’t say it in front of General a-hole ok? We don’t need another rant like the last one,” you told her, remembering one time where the two of you decided to have a small shooting competition. The general noticed and began ranting how we “weapons” shouldn’t have any sense of that, right up until he was reminded that you answered to Mrs. Trevor not him.

“Oh don’t worry about it. Even if he did he can’t do jack shit about it.”

“Alright, I’ll go check on the others.” You make your goodbyes and you head to search for Zeta first. Wondering how he is. Zeta 034 He’s normally a bit shyer and closed off than you were, but just like you, he has opened up a bit while with the rest of you. You finally find him in the balcony staring into the night.

“Weren’t you supposed to be with Kappa standing guard?” you asked, curious.

“Wha- oh right, yes, I was. But she said that my breathing was distracting.”

Right, you forgot that her senses were a bit more heightened. “Oh well. How you doing?”

“I’m… fine. Just staring.”

You move in beside him. “Staring at what?”

“Everything. Everybody.”

You looked at him with sympathy, knowing that that’s how you used to spend some of your days. Although you did not have eyes that could look as far as an eagle-like he does. “What can you see?”

“There’s a dog smelling some trash. A group of people sit in front of a house on the sidewalk,” he said rather matter of fact.

“Damn, wish I could see that far.”

“It’s not that great, to be honest. Just… normal? I think.”

You chuckled a bit and said, “Seeing several hundred miles ahead is normal to you?”

“Well, obviously not. But compared what you guys can do-“

“Give it a rest. I’m the most unimpressive guy here. At least you can teleport around,” you said jokingly, though truthfully. You may be one of the few telepaths in the Farm, but it’s nothing compared what the others can do. One on one you’ll lose against any of them. In fact, you have already lost several times against Alpha in spars. She isn’t just a super-strong unmovable object; she’s a wicked good fighter. “By the way,” you began looking to change the subject. “How does it feel? To teleport I mean?”

“Well, it sort feels like nothing, you know. I look at or think about a place, and then I just appear there.”

You looked at him with curiosity. “Really? No alternate dimension or anything in between?”

He looked at you confused and said “Eh no. Why would you think that?”

You wave it away. It was just the first thing that came to mind. You both remain silent for a couple of minutes before you finally decide to leave Zeta to his sightseeing. With a goodbye, you head to the roof to find Kappa sitting. Kappa 331, Unlike the rest of you, Kappa is the normal blue Re-gene, in fact, she was birthed that way. You don’t know her reasons but Mrs. Trevor asked for her to be transferred to your unit late in your training.

“I told Zeta his breathing was distracting. And although you have much better control of it, I can still hear it,” she said in her normal emotionless tone.

“Yet you never said a thing about it while we hunted down Lord Destroyer back in Los Diablos,” you retorted. Out of the three, Kappa was the one you shared the most sensibilities with. You were both cautious and hated going into a fight blind. You two were also the stealthiest of the group, although she has you beaten by the simple fact she can turn invisible. Despite all of that though, she tends to be secluded and aloof for some reason, always looking distant.

“I did mention you are more in control of it.”

“Don’t worry I just came here for a short talk.”

“You always come for a short talk and end up taking more time than that.”

You held your hand on your chest in mocked offense and said “I’m hurt,” and went on to sit beside her. You barely noticed but you saw a small smile on her before she came back to being serious. “So, how are things up here?”

“Quiet. No sign of intruders.”

“How are you doing?”

“I’m operating at one hundred percent.”

“Not what I meant, and you know it.”

She took a deep breath, a sign that she is about to unload and drop the Re-gene talk. “I’m fine Beta. Really.”

“Why do you always do that? speak like the others I mean.”

“Because that’s what I am,” she answered almost sadly. For as long as you have known her she tries to keep it professional but fails miserable, whether with Alpha or with you. Yet she kept trying for some reason. “That’s what we all are.”

“Don’t know if I agree with that. You didn’t see me when I was growing up, surrounded by all of them.”

“You were created with the express purpose of infiltrating, of mixing in with the crowd. I wasn’t. I was just another unit to be used in the wars.”

You stared at her curiously, wondering what she’s getting at. “What do you mean?”

“It means I was… simple. Didn’t had any doubt, any fear. I simply did my job. But as soon as I was repurposed I began feeling all of these… emotions. I don’t know how to deal with them.”

“What do you feel? About all of us.”

“I… care. I… don’t know if I could move on if any of you stopped function- I mean… perished. And that could interfere with my effectiveness.”

“Does it really? Or is that what you believe?” that seems to make her think for a moment. You wonder what is so alien to her about emotions. Didn’t she have them too? If not, does that mean the others never did? But then why do you?

“ok, I’ll leave you with that.”

“See what I meant?” she said. The conversation didn’t exactly last long but you decided to roll with it.

“What can I say, I’m a talker.”

“At least not as bad as Alpha.”

At that, you tried and failed to hold a laugh back. Kappa didn’t laugh but you could see visible effort on her face to hold back her own. You are going to have to ask her how to do that one of these days. You say your goodbyes and leave to wait for the reinforcements.

**12:00am**

You all stood in front of the house as the unit of Re-genes arrives. When you took a good look at the leader, however, you groaned in exasperation. “Ah, crap.”

“What is it?” Zeta asked you.

“It’s Delta,” you answered and both he and Kappa groaned in unison. Delta was a normal blue Re-gene under the command of the good General. He has a seemingly spotless record on missions. Problems, however, are that he is as smart as a six-year-old child and as rigid and uptight as the general, meaning that every time you cracked a joke or said something inconsequential, he would berate you for it.

“Where’s the prisoner?” he asked Alpha with as much emotion as you have when you wake up.

“Back inside. Unconscious.”

“Understood. Get ready, three more units are on the way.”

What? Three more units? “That’s five units in total. Isn’t that excessive? Especially against a guy who’s not even a boost?” you said as you stood beside Alpha.

“We don’t question the general’s orders,” he said as if it’s supposed to be obvious.

“You should, considering this makes things a lot harder now.”

“Beta-“ Alpha began but is interrupted by Delta.

“Unit Alpha 203 keep your unit under control.”

Alpha looks at him with the scariest look you have ever seen. “My ‘unit’ has a point.” She turns back to you, her look softening “Get back inside and take the others. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.” You obey but not before giving Delta a stare.

Fifteen minutes later Alpha came into the house and gave you a long good look.

“Oh come on Alpha,” you began.

“Beta…” she dragged out the name like a mother berating her children.

“This is a covert operation. A mission that requires secrecy and they send the one guy who has the subtlety of a sledgehammer? And on top of it all, they send even more?”

Just then Kappa also barged into the conversation. “I’m with Beta on this one. I don’t like criticizing my former teammates but he’s right. Delta was not made for a stealthy operation; he was made for a battle.” You don’t question the part about her saying Delta is her former teammate as you were far too focused on Delta. Surprisingly Zeta also steps into the conversation, although he stumbles a bit in his word, he pretty much stands with you and Kappa on the matter.

Finally Alpha yelled “Guys,” and you all shut up. You forgot how commanding she can be. “I know. Every single word you have said I have thought about it too. But we don’t have much choice, ok?” You all grudgingly nod.

“What’s the plan?” you asked

“Their plan,” she began, emphasizing the first word. “Is to surround the house and attack.” She opens up a holographic map of the area.

“They’ll cover all the exits and make sure no one escapes,” Kappa begins, almost as if she has already seen it. “Solid plan. Only downside is that it will be noisy, and probably alert the entire neighborhood.” It does. This was exactly your problem. Just then Alpha looked at you. You knew that look; it’s the look she gives you when she’s expecting you to figure something out. So you take a look at the map, wondering what other complication this plan could have. Think, think, surrounding and blocking all possible manner of escape is good, noisy but good. But it’s too easy. Far too easy. If they were bringing in a guy as important as this, they should be certain they can’t catch him. How to do that?

“They have a secret exit in the house,” you said as the answer comes to your mind. Of course they do, why wouldn’t they? This is their leader, and probably they already know you have his brother, so they’ll be extra careful. But that means.

“Delta’s plan wouldn’t work,” Kappa said before you did. You nodded to her and the two of you looked at a smiling Alpha.

“Yep. It’s on the bedroom under the bed,” she said nonchalantly.

You stare at her in disbelief. “You snuck into their house early, didn’t you?” She simply nods. “Sometimes I want to punch you in the face.”

“You could try, but that wrist will need a couple of weeks to heal.”

“Wasn’t he at the house?” Kappa asked.

“Sadly, no. But I do have a plan.”

You all walked closer to the map and to each other as Alpha began explaining her plan. Zeta will remain on one of the roofs, keeping an eye out and make sure Jeremy does not escape to the outside. That and to let us know when Delta decides to storm the house. Kappa and You will be the ones to go in and sneak around to find Jeremy before Delta begins his attack. Once captured, you’ll wait for the attack and as chaos rules; you’ll get out through the back where Alpha will be waiting to defend you from any henchmen that get in your way. “Basically our classic line up,” you said unsurprised. This is how you do it most of the time, or in some variation. Between your telepathic aura and Kappa’s invisibility, you can both sneak into just about anything. Zeta prefers to be at distance and his eagle eyes are perfect for keeping guard. And Alpha always enjoys being the unmovable object in the back waiting for any unfortunate idiot that decides to mess with her team.

“So, you guys ready to show Delta how it’s done?”

“I’m always up for sticking it to Delta,” You responded.

“Eh, yes,” said Zeta.

“I am,” Kappa says with an uncharacteristic smile.

Alpha smiled at all of you and said “Let’s go kick some ass then.”


	6. Let's Play Little Voice

It’s like the world is out to get you. Every time, every single time you think you finally got what you wanted, the world decides to rip it out of your hands like some sort of cruel joke. And you are not laughing, but rather beating this bag senseless. You’ll be surprised if Jane cannot knock someone out with one punch after this much punching the poor thing.

But something more is going on. One week has passed and you have yet to receive another call and in that time the Army has grown in size and power. They are currently one of the top gangs. But that’s not the worst of it, oh no. The worst of it is that it is someone from your past, a past you have long decided to forget. But alas it has come back and you are not having it. Just last night you remembered, the memory of how it used to be, how you used to be, how you got your name… the name she gave you.

Alpha, Kappa, Zeta… your original team, your brother and sisters, your family. A family you destroyed by treating them as such. You shouldn’t have, you knew it was wrong, you knew that it could get you and them killed or worst, but you kept going, treating them as your family, challenging the general and the other higher-ups. Trevor never really cared, to her as long as you were useful you could behave however you pleased, she even seemed to approve and encourage it. But you knew, you knew you were not supposed to act like that, like a person. It was all your fault.

You throw another punch that hits harder than the rest, and it seems Jane’s body is starting to catch up with you. You take a breather and drink a bottle of water, sitting not far from the boxing training ground of the gym. You rest long enough to hear another person punching another bag not far from yours. There you see a young woman, not very tall, long black hair, and a thin physique. She punches the bag with a lot of rage and frustration, almost like she’s venting, just like you. You also notice a bit of bandage around her back and neck.

“You know that poor bag is not going to last that much longer if you keep that up,” you say to get her attention. She turns around looking for the source of the voice and when she notices no one else but you, she turns back to punch.

“Look who’s talking. I arrived while you were still punching that one to hell,” she shoots back. Not complete dismissal but you notice a bit of annoyance in her voice.

“Yeah well you know what they say, do as I say not as I do.”

“Heh, can’t argue with you there.”

You stand up and walk to her, paying close attention to how she moves and punches. She’s decent but nowhere near as good as some of the other people you have seen here. Her technique is strong but predictable, a good base but nothing you use seriously. Overall, someone who has just began fighting and is still learning.

“Ok, strengthen that stance. Anybody with half a brain cell will take you down faster than you can say shit,” you tell her, wondering why the hell you bother. She turns and looks at you with one eyebrow raised. Yet she doesn’t say anything and does as you say. You were waiting for some back sass but surprise, surprise you did not get it. You walk around and behind the back to hold it in place.

“So, problems in paradise?” you ask, trying to begin conversation.

“Something like that. You?” she says a bit suspicious but no longer annoyed.

“Something like that. A couple of problems have sprung up, making my life hell,” you answer, giving a bit more than she does.

She looks at you, indecision in her eyes. If you had to guess, she’s considering whether to share or not. “I made a stupid mistake, and that got… it hurt someone I cared,” she finally says and goes back to punch the bag.

You empathize with her, against your better judgment. “And now you are punching this poor bag to see if something comes up,” you say with a smile.

“Speaking from experience?” she asks now smiling.

“Oh, incredibly so.”

“Does it ever work?”

“Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t,” you answer with a mix of sarcasm and frightening hidden honesty.

“I sometimes think it’s a waste of time. But then…” she doesn’t finish. You decide to finish it for her.

“But then something kicks your ass down and this is the only thing you are left with.” She looks at you with a soft smile and then chuckles.

“I was going to go say shit hits the fan, but sure, that works too.”

“Does it have to do with that bandage on your neck?” you decide to tackle that now.

“What?” she says with almost surprise. “Oh this, no. This was… just me being stupid. I heated the shower a bit too much.”

Your eyes slightly narrow on her. “Ouch, that had to hurt.”

“Like hell,” she whispers and rubs it lightly. You can’t tell what’s on her mind but you see a faint grimace. She finally raises her sight and stretches her hand. “I’m Emily by the way.”

You give yours and shake hands with her. “Jane. You come here often?”

“Actually I used to go somewhere else but, well, let’s just say it had a terrible case of being the center of a fight.”

Yeah, those happen a lot. The media only really reports what happens in the city, or when a famous hero and/or villain is involved. Smaller places get trashed all the time without anybody realizing it. “Who were the participants?” you ask as you two move away from the punching bag.

“Red Doll and some guy named Traxis.”

You ignore the surging feeling of satisfaction growing within you. “Oh, you mean that heroine that was on the news recently?”

She tries to hide it but you notice a small cough. “Yeah, that’s the one.”

“Never heard of the other guy though,” you mention.

“And you probably won’t. He’s currently living in the prison for boosts at the edge of Los Diablos,” she says standing her chest and chin up and proud.

You chuckle as you begin to dress. “Well, that’s one less criminal on the streets. Now she just has to deal with the other ninety-nine thousand.”

“Yeah, she does.”

You prepare to go and bid farewell to Emily. “Thanks for the chat. I needed it.”

“You and me both. You’ll come back here?”

“Might as well. It’s not far away from where I live.”

You swallow a chuckle. “Well then. When I come back I’ll see if I teach you a couple of other things.”

“Yes please, I need it.”

You leave the gym, thinking about what just happened. You guess it was about time something went your way. You are about eighty percent sure who she is. Still, it’s better to wait out a bit, make sure you are one hundred percent right on this; that you just met and befriended Red Doll.

**The Hideout**

You arrive just in time to have Rosie bombard you with questions. All of them boil down to ‘what the hell are you going to do about the army.’

“I have no idea,” you finally answer. They stare at you dumbfounded.

“Well then let’s ask the boss. They’ll know what to do,” Nehal says in her ever defiant and impatient manner.

“Mastermind is handling other things. For now, we wait,” you say, purposely forgetting to tell them about the caller. You don’t know who from your past is after you, and the last thing you need is your crew finding out about you. You are still not sure if to share it with them.

“What!” both Zaza and Nehal say at the same time.

“The more we leave those fuckers, the more they going to spread and smear their name,” Nehal says with Zaza nodding right behind her.

Rosie steps in your defense and says “Now settle down. When the boss’s not here, Jane’s the boss. And if she says we wait, we wait.”

“Like hell we are. Nehal’s right, those assholes need to be taken down a peg or two,” Zaza barges in.

“If we just barge in blindly, we’ll lose, just like last time,” Pelayo finally steps in, always calm and collected.

“But we can’t-“ Nehal begins but you shut her up immediately.

“As Pelayo said, we can’t just barge in. For now, we wait.” You eye Nehal as she crosses her arms and looks the other way. You walk towards her and close the distance, standing over her. combining the five foot nine of Jane with the plain five foot of Nehal, you look like a giant next to her, which enhances your point. “Unless you have something to say Nehal?”

She stares at you in defiance at first but in a couple of seconds, it changes to fear and submission. “No, ma’am.”

You turn away from her and address the rest of the team. “Listen up, I know how angry you all are over what happened, trust me I’m just as pissed off about as you are. But right now, they are a bit too big for us. That said they are getting attention. A lot of attention, that includes some big fishes who hate wild ones like the Army.” They all look at you with interest. You, Jane, smiles. Rosie asks what are you talking about and you oblige. “A certain someone hates trouble makers, and the army is a trouble maker.”

**Late afternoon, parking lot**

You never expected to have to deal with him. Ok, no, you expected to deal with him eventually. But not like this, not actually asking for help. Asking help from Hollow Ground. You spent all week talking to your contacts, asking if they had heard anything at all about the Army or some new player, but no one knew anything. The Army of Mastermind apparently sprung up from nothing, and no one has heard anything about a new player. Whoever this is, they know how to cover their tracks, which leaves you with nothing because everyone from your past knew how to cover their tracks. So you are left with this, contacting one of Hollow Ground's men to grant you information, for whatever price they might ask.

“Good afternoon Miss,” you hear and turn around to see an old man dressed formally. You wonder if he is supposed to be Hollow Ground’s butler or something similar.

“Jane will do,” you answer him as you two shake hands. Instantly you can tell this guy is a mod, his handshake being pretty strong and cold, like Steel’s.

“Of course Miss Jane. I heard your employer was interested in information from mine.”

“Name your price,” you respond with the softest of smiles, never letting it show what you are thinking.

“That is actually what I wanted to discuss,” he says. You can’t read him.

“Really? Is there a problem?”

“Not at all. You see my employer has certain sensibilities when it comes to new groups. Your employer has yet to prove a problem. This “Army” had proven themselves worse.”

You look at him trying to figure out his game. You get nothing from his face but you can see the suggestion coming a mile away. “So for now, consider this information a gift from my employer to yours.”

Gift? You feel more like it’s a favor. Which means you’ll owe him. Shit. “How kind of your employer. I’ll make sure to pass it on to mine.”

“Indeed. Now to what you came here for.” He hands you over a folder. You open it up and eye it up. “To summarize its contents, someone is after your employer. Someone who knows how to hide and has been working from the shadows for years.”

Your eyes open wide and you look up to him. “Years?” since when? Since your first escape? Or since your second? Have they always been watching you?

“Indeed. They made the Army, though the gang did not name itself that until after your employer’s little… tour to the museum.”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. They were planning this, somehow they knew what you were planning. “Is that all?”

“More details are on the files, but that’s the gist of it. You will find several whispers and rumors that not everyone on the underworld has heard. A pleasure doing business with you,” he finishes and puts on a hat as he walks away. He stops and turns to you and says “By the way, if anything were to happen to your employer, know that mine has an open seat for you, Miss Jane.” He tips his hat to you and goes, leaving you alone to ponder about what little you have learned.

You proceed to walk away from the lot, preparing to head home. _Watch out, behind you! _You instantly duck as you feel the rush of air from something going over you. You roll away and take a stance. Four thugs stand in front of you, all armed with armed, one with a bat, one with a crowbar, one with a chain, and another with a knife. “Hey, pretty face. Sorry, we are going to have to beat you up. Nothing personal.”

You wonder if this was Hollow Ground, but somehow you doubt that this is his style. “You are surely welcome to try. Warning though, I’m not afraid of beating up children,” you say with a devilish smile. The four of them rush but you knew they were going to do it, just as you know the one with the bat will strike first and the one with the knife will come second. The one with the chain will try to sneak up behind you to choke you with his chain, and the one with the crowbar will attack you from the side.

You know each and every single one of their moves before they happen, not like how you used to do as Sidestep but more like you have seen it already happen before. They think that they are the dangerous ones, but they are wrong. They are not the danger, you are. You’ll show them exactly how and why you are Mastermind’s second in command, why he would send you all alone without protection.

They try to strike you but they fail, they fail and you retaliate, punching them with the same strength that you used in the morning while beating up the bag. They stumble back and try to strike you again, but you see them coming all the time. They are not fighters or even adults, they are children, small kids compared to you. Time and again they aim and attack and time and again they fail. You soon take the guy’s crowbar and hit him in the head with it. The four retreat for a moment, staring at you with shock and fear.

You stare at them while smiling. “What’s the matter? Don’t tell me you are already scared. I’m barely even getting started.” You don’t know what this is. This pleasure you are having. You want to see them on the ground, bloodied and beaten, begging for their lives while you stare down at them smiling as only a devil could.

They try to run away but you rush them, swinging your crowbar with deadly precision. Some of them try to hit you again but like before they fail. Only these attacks aren’t meant to kill or hurt, but merely delay. They are attacking out of desperation. Good, that’s what you want. Beat them down, have no mercy, they tried to do the same to you, they are nothing. Idiotic children who have failed to live in this world. Beat them, destroy them. Their attacks are nothing, you can see them before they happen. Like a blur, you move and stab one of them with the crowbar, the one with the knife. As he lets go of it, you position yourself to let it fall on your hand.

You are barely even trying at this point, you could just sit back and relax. Yes, relax. Sit back and let me handle this. These thugs are unworthy of fighting you. The knife moves in blurs, cutting bit by bit every single one of them. You, she, could easily cut their necks, let them bleed to death, but where’s the fun in that? No, you want them to suffer.

In a couple of minutes, the fight is over, although the fight was over long before it began. You stand over all four of them, covered in cuts and blood. Two of them lay dead, one of them dying, and the last one still has enough strength to beg for his life.

“Please,” he whispers. You quiet him with a soft “Shhh” kneeling beside him.

“Don’t worry. You’ll go to a better place soon,” you begin as you put the blade beside his neck. “oh no wait, no you wouldn’t. There is no after this,” and with that, you push the blade right into his neck and watch him as he chokes on his own blood. The other one dies before you turn to him. Too bad, you would have enjoyed watching him die too.

But as you prepare to leave, you hear a cell phone. It’s coming from one of the corpses and you search it. Once you find it you answer, already expecting who will be on the other end.

“Whoa hohoho, that was incredible. A lot more brutal than I expected it to be. More brutal than when you fight as Mastermind.” Your eyes narrow at the last thing. Of course, they know that too.

“So this was you? Gotta say I’ve seen better murder attempts.”

“oh please, you wouldn’t have died. I just wanted to render that little doll of yours useless. Guess that’ll teach me.”

You smile. This idiot thinks they have you, but they are wrong, you are not prey, you are a hunter. “Indeed, that’ll teach you. That will teach you what will happen when I find you.” you hear an “oh” on the other end. Your smile grows. “You see this? This is how you will end up, bloodied, beaten. And I will be there to watch as you die. You messed with the Mastermind, time for you to meet the Hunter,” you finish and hang, not giving them a chance to retort. You throw the phone away and leave, taking the knife with you as a memento. You want to play? Let’s play little voice of my consciousness.


	7. Parasites

**Hideout - Morning**

The blood on your puppet terrifies you right now for some reason. It looks so… unnatural, so out of place. You trained her body to make sure she could defend herself, but the fight at the parking lot was something else. It wasn’t just self-defense, you enjoyed it. You are no stranger to enjoying a fight, but it was always born out of pride, a sense of knowing you won against odds that were too much for you. Here it felt the odds were not stacked against you but against them.

You shake your head away and head towards the one-sided mirror on your office. You watch your crew training, Pelayo relaying orders and the rest executing them to the best of their abilities. They take a familiar position to you. Zaza remains behind, taking advantage of his incredible eye, Pelayo stays in front of him acting as a wall between him and anybody else who wants to get to Zaza, and Nehal and Ward take point, acting as the Vanguard of the group.

It takes you back watching them like this working in unison.

You and Kappa always stepped into the fray, Zeta stood away and acted as the sniper, and Alpha was always an immovable wall. With the Rangers, your position changed to back up and tactician, but you were fine with that too. Anathema would be the one to stay behind and cover you while Ortega and Steel took point.

But it doesn’t matter, none of that mattered. In the end, everything you touched, you destroyed. No team was ever safe with you. Sooner or later they were destined to be destroyed. But if that’s the case then what does that say about you? About your crew? Will they also fall eventually? All because of you? Just like the others? They say that doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Are you insane then? For always falling back on having a team knowing what has happened in the past?

Would it be safer to fire them and go solo? Maybe… they would be safer. None of them deserve to be brought down with you. _But they are yours. You keep what is yours, no matter what_.

You put on your mask and step outside. You make sure to take each step slowly, letting the hard sound of your boots echo throughout the hideout. They all know what that means and everyone lines up as your silhouette forms in front of them, hands locked behind your back, cape covering all of your body, and cloak hiding the reflecting mask. You are sure in their position you would be disturbed, if not terrified. But then again, they have seen you and spoken with you enough times that you doubt they feel that anymore.

You let the silence hang in the air as you walk in front of them eyeing them up carefully. You notice a bit of shake from Rosie although her face remains emotionless. Good, she has learned to hide her fear better. Pelayo and Ward both stand upright and frozen like statues. They have military discipline and obviously see you as their commanding officer. Zaza is more relaxed albeit still somewhat scared, still not enough to not screw up from time to time but you have faith you can get there. Nehal is different; her posture is focused and stiff, but not as disciplined as Pelayo and Ward. Her face lights up and she looks at you with the same eyes of someone else. Herald. She admires and looks up to you and wants nothing else than to prove herself. That much you can discern from just looking at her, but even if that wasn’t enough her thoughts are just as ridiculously open as Herald’s, meaning that you receive them just as clearly.

You finally step back and stare at all of them. “We all know what’s going on. The so-called Army has been causing trouble and smearing my name. We tried once and we failed. That one was on me and I apologize.” You see Zaza brows shoot up in surprise, Nehal stiffens as if she wanted to say something but chose not to, and Rosie’s stance relaxes. Pelayo and Ward remain motionless but their thoughts shot up enough for you to notice that they feel the same way as the rest. “I failed to predict that something like this might happen. And let me be clear,” you take a step forward and finish with “I won’t let that happen again.”

“We will do our best boss,” Pelayo responds. You nod to him and continue.

“Jane has brought me some interesting information,” more like Hollow Ground gave you some but you don’t mention that to them. You pull out an envelope and hand it over to Pelayo so he passes it to the rest. “That’s a list of individuals who may have something to do with what is going on. We are going to get each and every single one of them.”

Nehal steps up and says “We won’t let you down boss. These guys are fucked.”

You make a sudden turn with your head to her, which causes her to step back. “Don’t get cocky Nehal. I appreciate your confidence, but don’t let it control you.” She nods. “Not all of them will resist, but some will. You can hurt them. But remember; I want them alive.” You proceed to dismiss them but you call Nehal to speak to her in private; you have another assignment for her since she wants to prove herself so badly. Time to give her that chance.

**Gym – Morning**

Truth is, however you don’t really care. You doubt any of them know more than what Hollow Ground already gave you. That said the possibility is still there. And of course, there are the other two reasons. You want to see how the voice will react. They must be watching your every move or at least paying enough attention to know what move you’ll do next so you decided to put them between the sword and a hard place. If they react then you know the suspects know more. Not only that but you will also push them to panic, and panicked people make mistakes. If they don’t do anything that means the suspects either know nothing or very little, the voice is so arrogant they don’t care, or they are not paying enough attention to you. But what you really want is for people to start talking, spreading the rumor that you are investigating, and not happy with the Army. Effectively disconnecting you from them and taking a swing at the voice. Either way, it’s a win-win for you. It’s so surprising how the simplest of plans can net you the best results no matter the outcomes.

You can’t help but smirk at the thought as Emily takes another swing at you and you evade it with ease. That’s right, while your crew takes care of the kidnappings, you decided to shoot down another bird by meeting with Emily as Jane so as to keep an eye on her and confirm your suspicions. Either she is a huge fan or she’s really bad at hiding herself. You guide the conversation masterfully back at Red Doll and Emily does not shut up about it. You have known heroes who had major egos before, Thunder, Silver Cat, Mayor Ultimate, even Ortega when you first met her, you thought she had a huge ego before you knew her more. And, of course, most recently good old Lady Argent.

But you don’t sense the same from Emily. It’s more like pride. Still, it means she may not take failure well, and of course, you killed her boyfriend. She throws another punch, you catch it and turn it into an armbar which she has no choice of escaping, at least not unless she was Red Doll and used her powers.

“Seriously? This is what, your fifth win?” she says as you let her go.

“You need to think a bit more. You are just throwing punches with no objective.”

“I do have an objective: Beat you,” she says oh so innocently. You can’t help but chuckle.

“Besides that. How are you planning to beat me?” you ask her and she stays there, only managing an “Uuuuuuuhhhhhh.”

You shake your head and sigh.

“Try attacking from the left. She has a hard time blocking that side,” you hear a very familiar voice say and you turn to see her. Of course, it’s Ortega. _Anything else world? Because I don’t think you have done enough_.

“You know I was trying to teach her. She doesn’t learn her lesson if you just tell her.”

“I think we have established I’m the better fighter here,” she shoots back in her teasing tone.

“Being a great fighter a great teacher does not make.”

“True, but it’s a start.”

You laugh as you decide to just let her have this one. You turn towards Emily only to find a girl who looks more like a stick than a person. Kudos to her, she could probably win that one challenge people were so obsessed about years ago. Mannequin challenge you think it was called.

“eh, well, Julia this is Emily, Emily Julia.” Ortega extends her hand and it takes Emily a whole second before she responds in kind. And even then it’s a very stiff shake.

“I’m guessing you know who I am already then,” Ortega says trying to ease the tension. You watch Emily gulp. _Gosh, she is bad at this._

“I, uh, I do,” she finally manages.

Ortega brings out that classic smile that melts any tension on the air. You simply feel the need to facepalm but you settle for rolling your eyes. “I’ll go change and then I can help you. Both of you.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” you say as she leaves. You wonder if she did not plan to come here until the last moment.

“You are friends with her?” you hear Emily’s voice, more quizzical than anything else.

“Yeah we met,” you stop for a second to make sure you don’t slip up and say years instead of months. “about four, almost five months ago,” you finish. You turn to her to find a worried look on her face.

“Doesn’t she work with that other woman, what’s her name?”

You feel the need to almost slap her in the face. And then facepalm yourself so hard you’ll leave a permanent mark. Seriously, could she be any more obvious? How has she survived this long? “Lady Argent?” you say just to play along but deep down you just want to knock some sense into her.

“That one.”

“Yes.” She doesn’t respond but her face changes from worried to neutral. You decide to try a more direct approach if she’s going to be this obvious you might as well poke harder. “Are you ok?

“What? Yes. I am,” she says obviously lying.

“Are you sure? Because that look on your face says otherwise.”

“Nah, I’m just tired,” she responds. Gosh, it’s like she read the cliché book for excuses.

“Has anyone ever told you you are a terrible liar?” you say.

She turns to you with a sad smile. “Yeah, once. My boyfriend. He said I had to get better at it.”

“Cool. Maybe you can present us someday,” you say, deciding to grab the bull by the horns.

“He… He’s gone now.”

You want to be angry with her right now. Maybe you are being too harsh on her, she is a novice after all and you have been running and hiding most of your free life but still. If she had caught the attention of any other top villain, she would be dead. Which begs the question why do you even care? You’ve only known her in her civilian life for a couple of weeks and in her hero life, if she is, she wants to cut your head off. So then why do you just want to hug her and say you are sorry?

“I’m sorry.”

She turns to you, her eyes watery. “It’s ok. I’m fine.”

You decide not to call out her obvious lie and simply put a hand on her shoulder. Even though it was you who did it, you still know what it feels like to have someone taken from you.

**Gym – Afternoon**

You finish for the day. Ortega left after a couple of hours, having to head for Rangers HQ, and left you to continue practicing with Emily, who did learn a couple of things. Better watch out when she and Mastermind next meet. Just as you step out, however, you see a crowd heading for you. A crowd with a very distinct black attire and mark: The Army of Mastermind. Shit.

“Oh you gotta be shitting me,” you say as you watch them approach.

“Crap,” Emily says right after you. They don’t head straight for you but block yours and everyone else’s path. One of them steps up, clearly the leader of this particular group.

“People listen up. From here on out this part of town is ours. If no one wants to get their asses kicked out you gotta pay. If you pay, we’ll make sure no one bothers you ever again”

Oh hell no. Racketeering? Really? You hear a “psst” and turn to see Emily.

“Jane there’s an alley beside the gym. C’mon.” You follow her without question. As much as you want to beat these idiots up even after what you did with the other gang members, there’s no way you can handle a crowd as big as this. But just as you step in the alley you hear Emily say “keep running.” You don’t obey and instead, turn to see that she is no longer there. Well, suspicion confirmed. At least ninety-five percent.

You decide to sneak up and see what happens and just as you suspected, Red Doll arrives just in time. The Army wastes no time to try and swarm her, but she easily slips out of the group holding her. Crap about Polymorphs, they are slippery as hell. She begins knocking them out, one, two, three at a time. She uses her limbs as projectiles, and any punch that lands she simply lets it go through her. You even manage to recognize some of the moves as moves you have taught her yourself. _Well, if you wanted to make her more dangerous, congratulations._ You shake your head out, wondering where did that thought come from. Not that it matters, it’s correct. Why the hell did you just give her more tools to beat you is beyond your comprehension.

It really does not last more than a couple of minutes. None of these idiots were boosted or mods, and they were clearly low-level goons. You see Red Doll stand there with a smile, a very proud smile which you have already seen before. “Hey,” you yell.

“Jane? I- I mean miss, this place is dangerous, get to safety.”

You raise an eyebrow letting her know that she is still a terrible liar and putting on a mask does not make her any better. She catches the message pretty quickly. “I’m that bad huh?” she says with a look of embarrassment. You simply nod while smiling from ear to ear. At least she’s not stupid.

**Later – diner**

“Can you keep the secret?” Emily asks sheepishly.

“Better than you, that’s for sure,” you say as you take a sip of soda.

“You already suspected?”

“Well, let’s be real. The way you speak of… Red Doll either makes you look like an obsessed fangirl or that you are her. One of those was doomed to be the answer.”

She moans like a puppy and hides her face on her hands. “Relax. You’ll be fine with me. My lips are sealed.”

She finally raises her face, relieve painted all over. “Thanks. Not many know.” Not many, huh? That means there are others. Maybe family members, and probably her boyfriend too.

“So what now?” you ask her half curious.

“Now I’ll go take a shower and try to think how to hide my secret better.”

“Yes, please. You’re painful to see when lying,” you say sarcastically.

“You know how?” she asks with genuine curiosity. Oh crap, you know where this is going.

“I think we established I may or may not be a very good teacher.”

“But you are the only one who can. All the other people who know-“ you stop her right before she spills something else.

“First of all, think before you speak. You talk too fast for your own good. Second, I’ll think about it.” She smiles at your response.

“Thanks, Jane.”

**Apartment – Dusk**

The pieces are beginning to fall into place. You are now certain who Red Doll is. Now, all you need to do is wait for a call. From whom, remains to be seen. The phone rings; both of them. One untraceable number for your crew and your personal one. The untraceable one displays Pelayo, your private only says private. You smile and answer Pelayo first.

“Yes.”

“We got the first one boss.”

“Good. Wait for me, I’ll be there,” you hang and take the other one. “Good to hear from you again. I was starting to miss you.”

“Ah, I feel so bad for making you wait. But really I’m sure it’s nothing. After all, you have been busy.”

“That I have.”

“I take it you know those idiots are not going to say much that you do not already know, right?” You simply chuckle at them.

“You can’t blame me for trying.”

“Maybe. But still, I think I should teach you a lesson.” So panicking it is. You can imagine Nehal celebrating now.

“Oh, you mean the bomb you set on my hideout to kill my crew?”

“What?”

“Yeah, about that. See, I thought that someone who wants to hurt me might want to go after those closest to me. But killing a Ranger is too much, you’ll get chased down no matter what. Killing Mortum would also get you too much attention, more than what you already have. And of course, Red Doll is too new. No way you think she’s anything important to me. So my crew was the easiest target. So I told my youngest underling to check out for a bomb.”

“Ha, you send a brat to disarm a bomb. I thought you were smarter than that,” they say with mockery.

“Let me finish. I gave her a device I made. Now, I’m no tech genius, but if there is one positive I can take out of my time as a Re-gene, is that I learned a lot about weapons, including bombs. And here’s the kicker, we may all be different, but Re-genes rarely, ever, create their own signature for bombs. Even cuckoos. I admit, that last one was a huge gamble but you don’t succeed if you don’t take a couple of risks. So basically what I’m saying is that I made a device that directly disarmed a bomb made by a Re-gene.”

“How are you so certain it did?”

“Because if I was in your place, I would have detonated it along with the suspect.” At that moment your phone rings again. “Give me a second,” you say and take it. “Yes?”

“Boss, Nehal wants to talk to you.”

“Pass her through,” you only smile and make sure to put the earphone on the speaker so the caller listens to Nehal’s report. She found it, just where you thought it would be and she disarmed without even trying. You congratulate her and hang. “Anything to say?” and nothing comes. “I’ll give you a hint, I know you are from the farm. More than that, I now know you are not just any person from the farm, you are Re-gene, just like me. Actually let me correct that, you are nothing like me.”

You still hear nothing except a distorted growl that must be their breathing. “Just so you know,” you begin as you stand up, your tone turning dark, almost resembling that of Mastermind when you have the mask on. “If you had succeeded and killed my crew, there is no place on this planet I wouldn’t go to hunt you down and tear you to pieces. Not even the Catastrofiend could come up with what I would do to you.”

“Heh, if only you were that overprotective with your old team, maybe they would still be… alive? I mean I’m sure Alpha is but I doubt she even remembers her own name let alone you.”

“We grow. Or rather learn.”

“If so you would have stopped after the facility fell. But instead, you went on to join the Rangers, only to also lead them to their destruction during Heartbreak.” You twitch at the mention of that and your cold anger grows. “Face it, you are destined to always take everyone down with you. Because you don’t really care about others, you only care about yourself, about how you feel. You can’t tolerate being alone in your misery, so you bring others down with you. Just like you did with the Rangers, just like you did with your squad, you will do to your crew. You will take them down and leave them as shells of who they were. In the end, you are just a parasite that feeds and feeds until its food is gone and moves on to the next. Maybe that should be your new villain name, Jeremy.” they finish, saying your name with a mixture of disgust and mockery as if you don’t deserve that name and hang.

Anger, self-hatred, doubt. All swim around your mind but you crush them all down. Now’s not the time to dwell on how you feel but rather in what you have won. Their little outburst just gave you all the information you needed. You know who they are, now you just need to learn where they are, how they are using the Army and take them down. But how? How can you take down one of your own? One of your teammates?


	8. Memories of a Deadman

**Years ago, Night – Amelia Neighborhood – Puerto Rico**

There was little you could have done different. In fact, there was nothing you could have done differently. Your plan was ready and able, Zeta was on a roof overlooking the neighborhood, Alpha was on the back of the house, and Kappa and you were inside sneaking in. Kappa turned invisible as always, while you began sending small telepathic waves that made the goons not notice you. Everything was going fine until you heard gunshots and shouting.

The place turned into chaos, Kappa and you were left staring at one another wondering what the hell had just happened. Not that your confusion lasted long of course as Zeta contacted all three of you and let you know that Delta had begun his attack. Way earlier than he told you. The worst part was that you knew that Delta was not smart enough to lie, which meant he just received orders to attack sooner; probably General Asshole. The attack forced you and Kappa to move fast, getting in before Jeremy could escape. Kappa, of course, went faster. You had forgotten how fast she could move. Even with his teleportation, Zeta could not keep up with how fast she reacted. Between the two of you, you left a trail of bodies behind as you made your way to the bedroom as fast as you could.

By the time you reached the room, however, the bed has been moved and the secret tunnel opened. Kappa and you rushed into it where a big fight began. It was chaotic, to say the least, cramped into a small tunnel with dozens of goons standing between you and your target; and all wanted you both dead. In this field of battle, Kappa shined. With her speed and invisibility, she sliced and diced with her sword, cutting down her opponents with no trouble, dancing in between their attacks, tricking them into hitting each other, cutting open their necks and stomachs, painting the tunnel red with blood. By the end of it, a dozen goons laid dead atop of each other, her sole blue figure standing among them victorious, and your target just some meters away, stunned. He tried one last-ditch effort to defend himself, shooting a blast from a strange weapon you did not recognize. Kappa dodged effortlessly but you did not fare as well, taking the brunt of the blast. You were surprised to find yourself relatively unharmed, physically anyway. Mentally speaking, you had the biggest headache in the world. And you could not feel any thoughts at all. Not Kappa’s, or Jeremy’s, or even Alpha’s as you finally noticed her standing beside you, worry written all over her face.

You were later informed that the weapon temporarily disabled your abilities. That was just the prototype. The “Guardianes” were planning to mass produce this. You wondered where they got this type of tech but that’s for your owners to figure out. You did your job, as good as could be done given the circumstances. The battle had attracted the attention of neighbors and soon probably the media. You’ve already been cleared and ready and you can feel your powers slowly coming back. You stare at the barricade made of cars and trucks, where people stand wondering what just happened. Zeta, Alpha and you stood in the open, your gear covering all of your bodies so no one could tell what you were. But Kappa was inside a truck and covered to make sure no one saw her skin. Too public. The higher-ups were not going to be happy about this.

And of course, the general was the first one who’s voice you heard. But before he could approach you Mrs. Trevor stood in front of him. You could not hear what they were saying but you could tell they were arguing. Trevor turned and made a motion for Alpha to come. You followed her too, curious to see what was going to happen.

“Unit Alpha 203 report,” he said with an accusatory tone as if he expected her to deliver all the evidence he needed. Alpha reported everything that happened, taking extra care to make sure Delta was the one that carried the blame, and in turn whoever ordered him to attack earlier. It took all of your strength that day to hold back a grin. “Unit Alpha, if I find out you are reporting wrong-” he begins but Trevor stops him from saying anything further. You and Alpha traded glances; you were not the only one holding back a grin.

Unsatisfied but defeated the good General turns to walk away. But he leaves with a warning, “The cuckoos program is a danger, General. It is unwise to teach these weapons emotions and have them live among people. One of these days I’ll prove it and take this whole farce down. When that happens you will fall with them.”

It was strange, you remember, to hear handler Trevor being addressed by her rank. To you, she was always handler Trevor or Mrs. Trevor. You always wondered why, why she never asked you to address her as such. Truth is you never knew who Vanessa Trevor truly was. At the time you respected her, you looked up to her. She always protected all four of you.

**Hideout, present – 8:30 pm**

But now you wonder if she ever did really cared or if she was simply manipulating all of you. Out of all the people in your past, she’s the only one you are not sure if you want to hurt. You stare at her picture on the file you paid a hacker to get. It was expensive; after all, hacking into government files is the equivalent of putting your head on a guillotine, but you had to. There’s only one other person left alive from what happened all those years ago. It comes back to you, the blood, the screams, your screams, the fire surrounding you, Trevor aiming a gun at you before telling you to go and never come back. The look on her face, cold and calculating, but the tone of her voice betrayed some care, whether that was genuine or not you don’t know. At the time you did not think of reading her mind.

You pass the page to see her accolades ever since. Despite what the General said, Vanessa Trevor did not fall, she rose. Despite the fall of your unit the Cuckoo program continued and she got promoted as one of those responsible for its success, even though she neither founded it nor was the head of it. You got to love politics. Overall she turned things around better than you did.

But you did not get this to reminisce of those times when you were little more than a slave. You got this because one person from your past is after you, and you want to know what happened after you escaped. Still, your hand shakes as you hold your untraceable phone. You swore you would never visit those years again, that you would forget about it all, should you really go back now? It’s too early and you could probably take the voice down without knowing what happened. But you want to know, you need to know what happened. You know what probably happened, they were taken and tortured. “Reeducated” as they called it, their minds erased to make space for a new one. But after that, you don’t know. And why would you? You left, abandoned them because you wanted something. Because you dared to wish.

**Years ago, the Farm – 9:30 pm**

“What do you want, Jeremy?” Alpha asked as the two of you sat on the rooftop. You had snuck out, as you both did several times over and just stare outside in the night. Kappa always said that you were being too reckless and one day you will be caught. Still, she along with Zeta always took guard, and sometimes even joined you two. Despite the danger, you liked it, being here, outside of your four walls room, not being cramped with the other Re-genes. Alpha knew that, she knew you better than you knew yourself.

“Are you seriously going to keep going with that?” you asked. As much as you like having a name, Alpha used it way too freely and too much for your liking. You have barely gotten used to it yourself, but she appears to have gotten used to it in mere seconds.

“Yep. That’s your name now, remember? And you did not answer my question.”

“Just being here, quiet. And not answering stupid questions.”

She looked at you and chuckled. “I meant out there. You clearly want something out there.”

You thought about her question for a few moments. What did you want? “Have you ever thought about all of this? About us? We constantly go out there and see how those people live, we are trained to feel how they feel and yet we are here and they are out there,” you told her. It was true. They trained you to read body language, relate to others, understand how a person feels, but to do so they had to teach you to feel it as well. It turns out you cannot make a good infiltrator that does not understand emotions. Otherwise, they might as well send a regular Re-gene to do the job. But that training was a double-edged sword, the more you felt, the more you wanted. You can’t just make someone feel and tell them they should ignore those feelings. And so you felt, and so did Alpha, and Zeta, and even Kappa. You felt, you cared, you loved.

“Sometimes,” Alpha finally answered after a minute. “Sometimes I want to run and see how everything is. But then I remember.”

You stared at her with curiosity. “Remember what?”

She turns back to you, the softest look you have ever seen on her face. “That you guys are here. No way would I leave without you guys.” You smiled back at her. Of course she wouldn’t. She would never abandon any of you, and whatever any of you wanted, she would try her hardest to get. Damn the consequences.

**Present**

You stare at the phone, Trevor’s number already dialed; all that is left is press green. Your breath slows down, your body freezes, a drop of sweat slides down your face, and your eyes twitch. Seconds turn into minutes, their faces flash on your mind, Alpha’s smiling and cheerful face, with a hint of strength hidden beneath, Kappa’s cold but soft stare, always hiding her emotions, and Zeta’s eyes avoiding yours, looking the other way, face on the verge of panicking but still smiling that timid smile. They all flash in your head, one after the other, memories of times long gone, times of fun and excitement. Times of sadness and despair, hugs long forgotten, cries long-buried, kisses long erased, memories of a dead man.

“Yes?” her voice sounds on the other end, older, stronger.

“It’s been a while, Mrs. Trevor.” The silence tells you that she recognizes your voice. Could she really remember it after all these years?

“I thought we would never speak again,” she says, her voice cold and professional, no hint of frustration or anger.

“So did I, but something came up.”

She snorts, almost as if expecting that response from you. “You want to meet, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“You are not afraid that I will set a trap and capture you again? I doubt you’ll escape a third time.”

“Would you believe me if I said I’m not?”

“I would tell you you’re a damn idiot and learned nothing of what I taught you about trusting people,” she says with a hint of anger.

“I never said anything about trusting. I said I’m not afraid that you will set a trap. You wouldn’t.”

“How do you know?” she says, you hear water on the other end, probably from the sink.

“You win nothing.” Silence reigns for the next few seconds before she finally agrees. You agree on a meeting spot on a dock next week. Even if you know she will not set an ambush, you still decide to send your crew this week to scout out the area, just in case. In the meantime, you decide to finish your “interrogation” of the man your crew brought. He knew quite a bit, you ripped out of his mind transactions made, to a Mr. Alex Moore. You checked him out but it turned out to be a bust, a fake person, a fake account. One of many. After all, money had to go somewhere, especially when you did mercenary work. That is why you could not find much about the Voice, they were a mystery, an assassin, hired only by the richest of the richest. Interesting. They took employment as an assassin in order to get the money they needed to pull off what they are doing now. You almost feel bad for not thinking about it yourself, definitely would have made it far easier to hire Mortum.

Admiration aside, The Voice made one mistake; they trusted this guy for one of their accounts; one that you just checked and to your pleasant surprise it was filled with enough money to keep you going for several months. That makes you wonder if the other suspects are also responsible for other accounts. But you doubt the Voice is just going to sit and watch as you steal their money. By this point, the money must have been transferred to another account. But it doesn’t matter, you’ve scored a victory. Now all that is left is move to the next piece; The Army of Mastermind. And you have the perfect person in mind for the job.

**Rangers HQ – Day**

The fight between Argent, Mastermind and Red Doll plays out on the screen time and again. Argent watches with a frown, arms crossed, finger tapping her arm slowly after every move made in the fight. She turns away from it, disinterested already after hours of reviewing the footage. She stares out of the window, into the city. “Where the hell are you?” she whispers. She looks down and notices someone on the sidewalk, someone familiar. It’s one of Mastermind’s henchmen. She turns in a flash and heads out of the room and outside, ignoring everyone around her. As she arrives at the lobby she hears a familiar voice, it is that man, the one Ortega has a crush on, what was his name? It does not matter. She steps out of the HQ and across the street, but the henchman is not there.

She looks around, ignoring the people pointing at her and searches for him, until… there entering an alleyway. She sprints after him. This reeks of an ambush, she knows, so she takes careful but confident steps. She is surprised to see him just standing there the middle of the alley. “If this is supposed to be an ambush, you are doing a very poor job,” she says, but not to him. She expects to see Mastermind spring out from wherever they may be.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s just me,” he says, face still, no emotion.

“Your boss sends you… you, to fight me?” she scoffs and chuckles, at the same time.

“No. I’m here to give you something you might want to know.”

“And what is that?” she says, taking one step closer, her fingers twitching, itching to get its claws out.

“Bloodmoon Ave. 430.”

“What’s that?”

“You want to find out, go there,” he says, turns, and leaves. Argent lets him. He is inconsequential, not the one she wants. Is that where they will be? Mastermind? But if so, are they setting a trap? It’s way too obvious though, and if she has learned anything, it’s that Mastermind is anything but obvious. So what is their plan? What do they seek? And why do they want her at that place? Maybe there is something there. If it was not important to them, then they would have never told her. If so, what? What is there? But what if it’s actually a trap? What if they expect her to think it wasn’t a trap only to ambush her there? But this could be her only chance to finally get them. And if she does not go, she could lose that chance.

She retreats back to HQ, determination in her face. Right beside her passes him again, Ortega’s friend.

“Everything alright?” he asks, but she ignores him. “Fine keep ignoring me,” she hears him say, but it doesn’t matter, what matters is Mastermind.


	9. Broken Hearts

**Years ago – Unknown Building**

Another day, another mission. Alpha and you infiltrated a local rising drug ring that was suspected of having several dangerous boosted. Although they did have boosts, they were not a danger that needed to be taken down so your mission ended quickly and the two of you were called to report back to Trevor. Kappa and Zeta were sent on another mission that turned out to be rather easy apparently and were on their way as well.

That day the location to report back to Trevor was not a government building, but rather a private one. At the time you did not know of course, but you realized soon after. While reporting to Trevor, she was talking to a man you did not recognize and did not care to ask at the time. Soon after reporting in, Trevor, the man, Alpha, and you stood in front of a one-sided mirror where you witnessed a young girl, being pitted against a re-gene. This was no surprise to you. You were all sometimes pitted against one another or new experimental projects. You surmised the girl was not a re-gene as she lacked the tattoos and blue skin, but a new experiment. She defeated the re-gene handily, showcasing incredible strength and speed, comparable to Alpha’s and Kappa’s respectively.

Soon after the experiment you and Alpha were dismissed and the two of you spent time roaming the building, or at least the parts you were allowed too.

“What’s wrong?” Alpha asked. You turned to her wondering what to tell. You were thinking about something that you witnessed back at the drug ring. There were two people, a male, and a female, and they were doing something you were not sure you had a name for. Their bodies were pressed together, as well as their lips. You may know now what they were doing, but back then, it was more or less a mystery. You were taught to feel and act like a person true. And that sort of training led to you actually feeling, but there were still things you did not know, or have names for. Hugs you knew but not by name, rather you knew them as an action between people who cared about each other. As such, you shared many with your team, Alpha in particular.

“Nothing much. Just…” you doubt for a moment, trying to sort out what to say. Alpha stared at you, curious and understanding. She had a knack for knowing what you were feeling and sometimes knew what you did not. As the leader of your team, she was required to feel and think more than you. It was not by much, but she was smarter than you and more knowledgeable about social interactions. You finally just blurted out your doubts in no particular order or cohesion but she understood.

“Let me think…” she said as she tapped her chin and walked back and forth. Suddenly, as if a light bulb turned on her head she turned to you. “That is called a kiss.” You stared at her dumbfounded, waiting for an explanation. “It’s an affection done by couples. You see, when two people care really really deeply about each other, they sometimes get together and become a couple.”

Still dumbfounded, you said “Ok. But what’s the difference?” She begins to try and say something but nothing comes out. She tapped her chin to think but in the end, she gives up with an “I don’t know.” Well, first time she fails you.

“Hey come on, Even I don’t know everything.”

“I didn’t say a thing,” you say.

“No, but you were thinking it.”

“I thought I was the telepath here.” Suddenly you feel your body being forced down and your head is wrapped by a slim but inhumanly strong arm. You manage to hear Alpha’s laugh and you groan.

“Yeah but you are terrible at hiding what you think. Your face always betrays you,” she says.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” you say as you managed to wrestle out of the hold, though you suspected she let you off. You have watched bigger foes being incapable of escaping her grip. You locked her in your own hold but she easily escaped it and ran away.

“Last one to the sparring mat has to clean the beds,” she yelled. You followed soon behind and after a couple of minutes running around, and catching the confused attention of several employees, you found the gym, empty. It made you wonder if it was because it was night but you did not dwell too long on it. Alpha immediately gave you a challenging look. You remembered how this went; she goats you and you spar, only for her to completely own your ass with little effort. Not only was she super strong and durable, she was the best fighter out of the four of you. Yet you never stopped accepting the challenge, you always told yourself in your mind that one day you would finally beat her. And every time you sparred you told yourself that “this was the time,” but you did not. And you never did beat her. That night she defeated you just as handily as she always did. So what was so different about this particular time? It came in the form of a return to the subject of earlier.

She took you down with a tackle, not even using a third of her strength, just destroying your balance with skill, and pinned you. You both laughed as you always did. But after the laugh ended, instead of her standing up and helping you up as she always did, she stared at your eyes and you stared at hers. Both of your breaths slowing down as she looked at you with curiosity, you’ve seen this curiosity before but never at this close of a distance. Then the words came: “You want to try it out with me?” she asked with an innocent look on her face. You knew what she was talking about, and that day you simply nodded. Your lips touched hers lightly, a fearful kiss that neither of you knew how to do, but you tried, and you liked it. And then the radio sound and you heard Trevor’s voice, ordering you to regroup as Kappa and Zeta had returned. And you both got up and knew things were different from there and on.

**Present – Hideout**

Oh so different. You close your fist as you bury the memory again. There was a reason you avoided them, it makes you dwell on what-ifs, what if you had said no? What if you had stopped it there, what if you had not told her you wanted to be free, what if you had not accepted the name she gave you? What if you never became Jeremy? You would still be Beta 010, member of the cuckoo squad number 42, under the command of unit Alpha 203, and belonging to General Vanessa Trevor. None of what happened would have happened, your escape, Heartbreak… and Mastermind.

You dig your gloved fist on the wall of your hideout, leaving a deep hole.

“Boss?” you hear Rosie’s voice. You turn around to see her standing there. You sense a bit of fear but also a bit of sympathy.

“What is it?” you ask, your voice coming out as distorted as always and hiding the current weakness of your normal one.

“Zaza reported in. He spotted the silver lady heading to Bloodmoon Ave.”

“Good. Tell the team to get ready. Tell Zaza to wait for us at the designated location.”

“Yes boss,” she says and turns around. You can sense she wants to say something but does not do it. You let her go. At the moment, you have to focus on what’s about to happen. Bloodmoon Avenue. Originally just another street with no name, it gained its current one when a massacre happened. A scientist experimenting with the hero drug accidentally created an unstable variant that instead of either killing people or giving them powers, it turned them into monsters. But that’s not why you remember this place, oh no. You remember this place as the location of your first mission. Your first official mission after hundreds of test missions, the first time you worked with Alpha and Zeta. At this point, Kappa had not yet joined. Officially your mission was a success, you captured the scientist but the battle in his lab caused several creatures to escape and create chaos all around the street. Creatures tearing apart everything in their path, people, animals, and each other. It was a bloodbath, all in a night with a full moon, hence Bloodmoon Avenue.

General Slyther held that against you forever, he never really trusted cuckoos, and saw them as a threat to the military and every time you screwed up, he would that failure over your head forever. It’s a good thing then that your team rarely failed. Although in hindsight you wonder if his paranoia was justified, after all, look at everything you have done.

You grab your new Taser weapon and glue it to your right hand. This one is much stronger than the first. Much, much stronger according to Mortum.

**Two days ago – Dr. Mortum’s lab**

“Here you have it Ma chérie. New, more powerful, and more durable as you asked,” Mortum said with a proud smile.

“How so?” you asked more out of curiosity, and because you enjoy seeing her go on these speeches.

“This one is at least, one hundred times stronger than the first one I gave you. Though I’m lowballing it here just so you know. It has a battery of the same size but much bigger lifespan. This little baby can power up a hundred houses and still have more than half energy to spare. The material is a stronger configuration of your boss’s suit, meaning it can take more than it can deliver.”

You stared at her waiting for an oversimplification, just for the giggles. “You can electrocute a whale with this ma chérie.”

“Nice. And the other order?” With a smile, she goes to a stand and picks up a box. She opens it up to show you. You see several small black patches on tips of what appears to be plastic fingers. “This is it? I was hoping for a cool ice gun,” you say with a chuckle.

“Please Ma chérie, a gun would look so unfitting on that suit,” you agree, you did not order the suit to fight from a distance. “No, instead I decided to keep with the theme of death touches. In this case, these little things stick to your fingers,” she puts one on her index finger. She signals you to step back as she touches the table in front of you. “and when you make pressure,” she says and part of the table turns white, freezing over.

“Wow,” is all you managed to say as you pass your hand over the frozen part, never quite touching it, and feel the cold air coming from it. “How cold can it get?”

“As cold as it’s needed. Truth is these do not freeze anything; they absorb all the heat of the body they are in contact with. Their range is small, approximately 30 inches each. That’s why I made one for each finger for ten in total. Five together can freeze a limb, or a head knowing how your boss likes to kill their victims.” You twitch at the mention of that. Because of that kill, it’s why you asked her to make these in the first place.

“How do you stop them from freezing your own arm? I mean, my boss uses a lot of punches.”

“I know. That’s why I made them compatible with the suit’s systems. Just stick them to the gloves and they will reconfigure to follow the user’s will. The same goes for the taser.”

You nod, satisfied. You wonder if you would ever find a scientist better than Mortum. Or if you would even want to.

**Present – hideout**

You put on the taser on the palm of your hand and carefully place the patches on each of your fingertips. In your H.U.D the suit lets you know that it has connected the patches to its mainframe. Mortum informed you that the patches transfer the heat you absorb into the suit, transforming it into energy, which means your suit will be able to go longer if you ever use the patches. The taser has its own battery so that’s another thing you don't have to worry about. Overall, you have made your suit deadlier, much deadlier, without repercussions. If only things always went this smoothly.

**12:00 am, outside the Army’s hideout.**

It’s funny to find this street in the same state as when you left it all those years ago. It brings you back to it, Alpha and you immediately clicking, and Zeta being the sad third wheel. He was nervous, more than you were and you were forced to act as the big brother and comfort him. Alpha smiled all the way through, friendly in a way the majority of the others were not. She was not empty or cold, but vibrant and full of life, you felt safe in her presence, and drawn to her. _Alpha? Alpha! It’s me, Jeremy. Please, recognize me, I know you are there. Alpha! _The memory floods your mind and in an instant, you burry it with brutal mental power, enough that if you did the same to someone else, you would shut them down. This was no time to remember, this was the time to confront what has been hunting you, who has been hunting you, The Voice.

You already hear her come but let her believe she has not alerted you. “I was doubting you would be here,” Argent says standing beside you, claws already out.

“If there’s one thing you should know about me, is that I keep my word.”

“I’ll believe it when I see that more often. Well…” she begins as she takes a stance, “if there is even a next time.”

You chuckle a bit. “Apologies, I did not call you out here to fight,” you say without even turning to her. You can practically hear the confusion shooting out of her mind.

“What?” she manages to say.

“As you heard. I did not call you to fight. I wanted you to do me a small favor.”

“What kind of favor?”

“The Army.”

“What about them? Aren’t they yours?”

“They are not. Just a gang of goons who decided to take my name and use it.” You turn your head towards her and say “Without my permission. I want them out.”

The look she gives you pretty much screams “Are you serious?” She puts her now clawless hands on her waist and says “Let me get this straight: you want me to take out your trash? Do I look like your servant? Better yet, why would I even do it?”

Your turn your head back to the building in the distance, their hideout. “You won’t have a choice.” Her expression darkens and her claws come out again.

“You’re going to make me?” she asks with a threatening tone.

You chuckle a bit again. “Not me. They,” you say and point to the building. She turns just in time to notice the crowd of goons coming your way.

“You son of a bitch. This was a trap, wasn’t it!”

“Relax,” you begin as you take your own stance. “I’ll help you out for a bit.”

“Who says I need it.”

“Not doing it for you pretty silver. This one’s because I’m pissed,” you don’t lie. You are angry, angrier than you have been in a long time. This whole situation has brought back memories you buried long ago. Now, these sad useless blobs of flesh will be on the receiving end before you get the message of your crew that they are in.

Quickly they all fall on both of you with bats, machetes, knives, chains, and every other useless weapon. You assume the ones with the guns are still inside the building. Big mistake, these goons are useless against you and Argent. Both of you move like liquid through their predictable attacks. Some land, but barely do any damage as you beat them up with well-placed fists and kicks, that dislocate bones and stops the movement of blood to certain areas. Argent does not even bother with her claws, hitting them by the dozens with one attack. Unstoppable, unbeatable, precise, and quick. No attack is wasted, one punch sends several of them meters away, every attack that lands on her bounces off with no visible damage. Alpha- no, Argent, has no trouble with these guys, they are nothing next to her; and you.

At your feet lay dozens of them, injured and beaten. Others back off as the two of you take a step forward. They try to attack again, but once again you fight them off with little effort. Soon their numbers deplete even more and one of them calls for back up. At that point, Pelayo’s voice sounds on your communicator. “Boss, you got guys with big guns coming for you.”

“The building is empty?”

“Some guys still remain but not many.”

“Good. I’m on my way,” you say as you knock out one last goon. “Well, this is my cue to go. Have a good night,” you finish but before you leave you turn back to her and bow while saying “my lady.”

“I will murder you!” you hear her screaming as you turn on your rockets and fly off. She can handle herself just fine. You manage to sneak through the houses and into the building without any hiccups. As Pelayo said, the building is almost empty, with only a couple of goons left. You take them out one by one, sneaking into the darkness, calling on not just your current training, but your older training, during extraction ops. You half expect to find Kappa standing right next to you but you quickly bury the memory.

Finally, you meet up with your crew.

“Boss! Look I took out several of these guys myself,” Nehal is the first one to speak up and points at a group of goons.

“It wasn’t just yourself, I shot several of those idiots before you knocked them out,” Zaza interjects earning an elbow from Nehal.

“Good job. Both of you,” you say. Nehal’s eyes shine up and she nods while Zaza gives you a weak “thanks.”

“Rosie turned off all of the cameras. Whoever was watching on the cameras never saw us,” Pelayo informs you.

“Good. Stay here and create a perimeter. I won’t be long.”

“Boss?” you turn to Pelayo who is looking at you with a neutral expression. If not for your telepathy you could not tell he was worried. “What’s going on? I know I shouldn’t question you, but between the bomb in the hideout and this mystery guy you’re going to face now, it feels that there is more going on,” he whispers to you, making sure the others do not listen. Though you imagine the others have their own suspicions as well.

“I’ll explain later. After we are done here,” you tell him, making sure he understands your meaning. You agree with him, you should have told them something, but you didn’t. And if they doubt you, they might abandon you. But right now is not the time for explanations. Every lost second is a second more before The Voice realizes that you are here and if they don’t there is a possibility more goons might appear and if you are too busy explaining they might catch you and your crew off guard. So you decide to leave explanations for later, right now the mission is more important. Just like Alpha told you the first time you were here. Once again you shake the memory away and leave as Pelayo begins calling positions.

You turn to them once again. “Listen up, I don’t want any heroics. From any of you. You focus on surviving, understood. If that involves leaving, do so.”

“Boss!” Nehal yells and you can feel the others also tense up but with a gesture, you stop her.

“I’ll be fine. No matter what, I will not let this place be my grave.” For the first time since you recruited them, you tell them the truth. There is still too much to be done for you to fall so soon.

With that they all nod and take positions while you head towards the main office through a long barely lid hallway. The hallway ends in a flight of stairs and you breathe as you take your first step. Each step you take with caution, your heart beating faster, the darkness slowly surrounding you. To be honest with yourself, you don’t know if you will find the Voice here. You suspect you will but there is a possibility it will all be for nothing. So far they have been smart enough to hide their tracks. But then again they have made mistakes, and if the crowd of goons on the outside is any indication they are prone to quickly panic when things do not go their way. They are smart, but sometimes they let emotions get the better of them like they always did.

The final step and the door stand in front of you. Rusted, covered in claw marks from the creatures escape. You remember when you first stepped through this door, Alpha in front flanked by you and Zeta. This was the lab that you assaulted. _Fitting _you think, your first meeting with them as the Voice is in the same place when you first met as the slaves for the directive. Sentimental even until the end.

No point in stalling any longer. You open the door with little care, no amount of cautiousness will stop that door from echoing through the now empty lab. You walk through the room, broken vials all over the ground, dried up liquids decorating the walls. Deformed skeletons lie around, some with burned parts, probably from the security system of the lab. Others have claw marks all over the bones, killed by other creatures. You even noticed two skeletons stuck together in mutual demise. But most importantly you see a figure at the end, clad in white. A suit similar to yours, but no hood, and instead of a cape it has a long coat. Their mask, although a mirror, like yours, has a different shape. Whereas yours has a blade-like edge on the front where the two halves of it join, the Voice’s mask is flat, perfectly mirroring a face back with no distortions.

“Must be a nightmare keeping that clean,” you begin. You want to probe them before you fight them.

“It’s not, thankfully. I told the scientist to make it self cleaning,” they say. Their voice is ear piercing, a simple screech that burns it into your ear. Thankfully your filters reduce the screech.

“Really? Mind telling me their name? I would definitely love something like that.”

“I’m sorry, he’s dead. Had to kill him after you found one of my account owners. Couldn’t let you get another huge clue. Though I guess now that I think about it, that was all for nothing. You were always smarter than me.”

“We are equals, actually. The difference is that you always let your emotions get the better of you. If you had more self-control, you could have destroyed me without me ever realizing I was being sabotaged. But instead, you decided that your ego was more important than your success.” You take a step, the Voice does not.

“Why do you speak as if I’ve already lost?”

“You haven’t?”

“I got some backups just in case this happened. All I have to do is get out of here.”

“Too bad you wouldn’t.” As you finish saying that the lights on the room turn on. You are going to have to give Rosie a raise after this. Not only has she performed perfectly, her timing has been impeccable. “Force field is up.”

“And?”

“Teleportation,” you begin, pacing back and forth as if you were a teacher talking to students. “The ability to separate the molecules of your body and move them from one location to another before reuniting them back together. This also allows you to phase through walls with ease and almost anything else. Though you cannot harm anything in that state either, that’s okay. Force fields, however, do not let any molecule get pass them. Meaning you are not getting out of here. Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten power explanations back at the farm. It was practically a basic class.”

“And you think that that can stop me from beating you?”

“You never could beat me in our spars, even with your powers.”

“I’ve changed Beta. While you were away, living your dream life, I learned, I became stronger, better. I no longer needed a team. And unlike you, I escaped alone.”

You sigh, “Are you seriously turning this into a dick measuring contest? I don’t care how much better you are. All I care about is that you are interfering with my plans.”

He chuckles. “Figures. It’s always all about you, you are the only one that matters, everyone else be damned. I can’t believe I ever looked up to you. How could I have been so blind? But like you said before, we grow. Or rather, learn.”

“I never asked to be your idol,” you pause. “Zeta,” you finally say. You finally said his name. It’s done, now it has completely fallen into place, now it’s real. No more denial, no more avoiding his name, no more referring to him as them or the Voice. The proverbial cat is out of the bag.

“You sounded almost hesitant there. Afraid of the past?” You do not give him the pleasure of answering. You simply take a stance. “Fine. Let’s see how much better I have become.”

“Bring it on,” you say ready to begin.

**Years ago – The Farm Training grounds**

Zeta tried to teleport behind you but you easily take him down with a sweep. You were trained to use wide sweeps and attacks to deal with teleporters since their favorite strategy is to always teleport around you. This way your attacks were always going to hit them if they teleported anywhere near you. Although even without that training, his mind was an easy read and he always thought about his attacks before he did them.

“Come on, I know you can do better than that,” Alpha yelled.

“Yeah, I- I know,” he said as he stood up.

“Do try to remember the training. You know what I’m going to do already,” you told him. Indeed, he should know how is it that non-teleporters fight teleporters. Wide sweeping attacks that cover all 360 degrees of the subject’s area, leaving no blind spots for teleporters to use. So he should come up with an idea to bypass that. He does, he feints a teleport to lure you into another sweep and when your back is turned he attacks. Sadly for him, you knew what he was planning and you quickly turn his attack into a judo toss and pin him to the mat.

“How do you always beat me,” he groaned as you helped him up.

You pointed at your head and said, “Telepathy, remember? You think your attacks before you make them. Try not to think too much. Otherwise, I’ll see it coming a mile away.”

“But if I don’t think, then I can’t form a strategy to win.”

You nod sympathetically to him. “That’s the thing about telepaths. Unless you have something that blocks their power, it’s better to just be random.”

**Present – former laboratory of Bloodmoon avenue.**

As you take your stance you task the Rat King to track Zeta’s movements. But suddenly a mental squeal echoes in your head. Something is wrong. Your answer comes soon after as you hear Zeta chuckle.

“Trying to get in here?’ he points to his head. “Yeah, good try, but this baby will not let any telepathic influence in. You are locked out of my head.”

Huh, he did learn. So that means this will go the old fashioned way; easier said than done. You try to do a sweep attack as he disappears in front of you but you notice the teleport was a feint as he reappears in the same place, making you look like an amateur attacking the wind. Off balanced, Zeta teleports again and this time appears behind you and delivers a kick that sends you flying meters away. Huh, his suit grants him superhuman strength, more than yours. Guess you don’t need much speed when you have the power of teleportation. That means he is already prepping the attack before he reforms.

He does a feint again, but this time you recognize it and leap forward. As he reforms again you tackle him to the ground and prepare to hit him with a punch, but he disappears and your fist only hits the ground. He reappears in front of you and kicks you in the face, once again sending you flying several meters back with little effort. You roll back to your feet and just as he disappears you drop a smoke bomb. He reappears inside the smoke cloud, blinded, and you take this chance hit him in his pressure points, trying to pin down a weakness in his armor. But at the last second, he disappears and reappears outside of the cloud.

Right before you turn, you feel something heavy hit you on the head. Then another, and another, and another, and another. Objects of all sizes and shapes rain down upon you, some of them inoffensive, others more annoying. You realize soon that he is teleporting and either kicking or throwing objects your way. You activate your rockets and leap into the air, dodging all incoming objects. Zeta tries to aim for you but you are a far more mobile target in the air and all of his attacks fail miserably. You continue this dance for some minutes, letting him try to get you but failing miserably. Seems that he has not overcome this weakness yet: fighting an opponent in the air. Teleporters are great on the ground. By themselves, they are worth dozens of normal soldiers. But fighting opponents in the air is much more difficult. Sure, they could teleport into the air and catch them, but that leaves them in precarious situations, at the mercy of the flyer and in their territory. And fighting a flyer in their element is the worst mistake you can make if you yourself cannot fly. Zeta knows that, and it’s why he does not try to get you now, and instead continues throwing or kicking objects your way, using his eagle eye to try and nail you. But it is not working. You can see it in the way he moves, less thought, more instinct, instead of grabbing or kicking specific objects he is taking anything he can and aiming it at you. Desperation or frustration. Either way, he is losing it once again. Too easy.

In one final movement, he throws a table at you. You easily evade but when you look, he is no longer there. You search and find him standing on a desk at the tail end of the room. He is aiming his open right hand at you, a small light emitting from the center. One that by the time you recognize it, it’s already too late and the blast shoots and hits you, moving at a speed that even with your suit you could not evade. You know only one person who dodged it at point-blank range, Kappa, and this is that same blast: the blast that Jeremy Rodriguez’s gun shot, the blast that left you powerless and with a headache for a few hours.

You scream as a screech fills your head and you fall to the ground. Through the distorter your voice comes out as a roar, you hold your head, the screech filling every part of your head. You don’t hear the rat king, or anything really. You feel disconnected, out of the world, empty; for a time.

“Didn’t see that one coming did you?” you barely hear Zeta say, his voice an echo of in your head. “Was hoping I might not have to use it just yet. But you did always forced me to go all out.”

You want to respond, but you can’t. Whatever response you come up with gets drowned by the screech in your head. And your dreams. Your memories. They swarm you like a wave of water, taking you with them, drowning you, taking you ever so deeper into the depths from which they come, the pressure of the water weighing on you, threatening to crush your very being. All the pain, all the misery, all the hunger, all the anger you thought you had buried come back. All of the helplessness you felt, all of the desperation, all of the fear, all the lost loves, all the people you miss, all the people you fear to lose, everything is here, in this sea of your own creation. It never occurred to you that all of this was inside of you, that you had buried so much in all these years. You thought you had forgotten who you were, that you had long left all of those things in the past, but you were wrong, oh so very wrong. They never left, they never disappeared, they were always there, with you, buried by your telepathy. You never thought that just as your powers can affect the minds of others, so can it affect yours. But even then some still resurfaced pushed up their way through your barriers. But now, there is no barrier, nothing stopping them from coming up. Powerless.

And then you hear it, the desperate cries of the rat king, the minds of your crew, fighting and escaping from the building as they are chased away by more goons, Pelayo ordering everyone to run, Nehal refusing to leave only to have Ward pull her away, Rosie following soon behind. Argent’s mind as she fights off the goons outside, now aided by vigilantes who have joined the fray, and the minds of the people surrounding, some scared and others curious. You even feel one mind, consumed with fear and anger, Zeta’s. You look up to find him screaming and holding his head, sparks coming out of his helmet. But it doesn’t matter. None of that matter. All the hunger and the anger consume you, the pain of powering through the blast, a burning sensation on your head. You roar, you roar, not just outside, but in your head and you can feel what everyone else feels. The rat king cowers away from you, your crew stops right in front of the building, the fighting far beyond stops as well, Argent, the vigilantes, and the Army stop as they all hear the same deafening roar.

You dig your boots on the ground and force yourself to stand up, your head screaming pain. You are sure you feel blood coming down your nose, but you pay it no mind. Zeta kneels in front of you, without a helmet. He’s is older, just like you, but cleaner, not a mess. If his mind was not open now, you could not tell he is broken inside.

“Impossible,” he whispers, telling it more to himself than to you.

“This ends now,” you say and with a mere frown, you send a telepathic wave. A wave aimed only at the Army’s goons who are in the surroundings. A wave that delivers one, simple command, a command you have seen in action, a command that terrified a lot of people, a command that you yourself have felt and have been terrified off. The command to ‘end it’ right here, right now. Heartbreak.

In the next several minutes you can feel the surprise and shock from those not part of the army. Your crew, the vigilantes, the crowd, even Argent stare in disbelief as they witness the Zeta’s goons take their own lives, one by one. And you feel nothing, nothing but pure rage. The Rat King still keeps their mind hidden, small, trying not to look threatening. You pant like a hungry beast and look at Zeta, horrified. “Monster,” he says and before you can stop it, the building begins shaking. You notice a detonator in his hand right before the lights go out and he disappears, the force field out along with the rest of the lights. You don’t bother trying to escape, nothing will get out of here, even with your speed.

But as the building buries you, you refuse to let it take you; you refuse to let the cold embrace of death take you. You push yourself out of the debris, powering through it the same way your mind powered through the weapon’s effects.

“Boss!” your crew yells all at the same time. You walk past them, panting and see helicopters in the distance; from the media and LDPD.

“Back to the hideout,” you order, leaving no room for questioning.

**Hideout**

No words are exchanged, but you feel their eyes on you the whole way. You arrive at your hideout and your crew spreads out, only Pelayo following you. In all of this, your head still screeches and hurts and the rat king remains just as quiet as your crew. You stumble a bit and use a wall for support. Pelayo tries to help you but you dismiss him with a gesture. He cannot help, your head is heavy, you need to get it out of this prison. You open the mechanism of your helmet and throw it away, not caring where it lands. You can hear their thoughts spark in surprise, Pelayo even turns away. In this angle they cannot see your face and you could probably hide it with your cloak, but you don’t want to, you are tired, too tired to care anymore. Before you turn to them you look at the one-way mirror of your office; staring back it’s a man with pale skin and blood dried blood dripping from your eyes, nose, and mouth; a monster.

You finally turn to them, letting them see your monstrous face and you can feel their fear spark up as they stare at you. You sit on the ground, resting your back against the wall and staring up at them.

“I look better than this, trust me,” you begin, the humor more to calm you down than them. And it doesn’t seem like it eased any of them either. Your voice is raspy and your throat hurts when you talk. “I’m- I was something different a long time ago. There have been people I have hurt. Teams I have destroyed. The man responsible for what has been happening is one of those people. We… we worked together. And I abandoned him. Now he wants revenge. And he will target all the people I know,” you pause letting it sink it. “Including you.” You stare at them reading their expressions. Fear, confusion, indecision. You stand up, looking at all of them as the leader that you are. “From here on out, things will get worse. Much worse. Not just because of him, but because what I will do in the future. I will challenge individuals who will be just as, if not more dangerous as he is. Heroes, villains, and others, I will fight all of them. This is just a taste of what I will become. If you decide that this is too much, I wouldn’t blame you if you leave.” You turn around to head to your office, letting them dwell and think their options through.

You lock the door behind you and strip off of your armor, letting all the pieces fall to the ground. Naked you enter the cold shower and stare at your tattoos. The marks of your past and your shame. For years you feared them, puked at even trying to look at them. Now? Now only anger comes up, anger and a twisted sense of pride. These mark you as nothing. Something that does not deserve or need anything, a tool to be used. You can’t hold back the chuckle, _Nothing? If that’s the case, then what does that make everyone else you have beaten? Less than nothing? _A familiar feminine voice echoes in your mind. You step out of the shower and stare at the mirror. Your face looks much better without the blood. Still a bit pale but nothing that will not disappear. Behind your reflection, on the left stands your puppet, Jane, a sinister smile on her face. On the right stands Mastermind as mysterious as you always imagined it.

“We still have much to do,” she whispers in your ear. “Still very much to do,” Mastermind whispers. “Don’t let him stop us,” they both whisper. You hear the Rat King squealing, wrapping itself around your mind. But you stop it, you caress it with your mind, letting it know it’s all fine.

“He won’t stop me,” you say out loud. “No one can.”


	10. Aftermath

**Bloodmoon Ave. Night**

Idiot, that is what Argent was thinking to herself right now. How could she have been such an idiot and let herself be manipulated and lured by a villain? She normally just beat them up and went home. She never chased them, nor did she listen to them, hoping they would keep their word. So why did she made that exception with Mastermind? Why did she even allow herself to believe that it would go any other way? It does not matter, not right now. Right now she would just focus on beating these idiots and think about her stupidity later.

At least things would be over much faster now that several other vigilantes have joined in. Normally she did not like nor cared to be helped by other heroes; never was much of a team player. But in this case, fighting a bunch of goons who could never beat her on their best day by herself is not her idea of fun. So at least with the extra help, this fight could be over faster.

She closes the distance to another goon shooting her with a shotgun. With little effort she slaps him away, sending him crashing against a brick wall.

“Nice one,” yells one of the heroes but Argent ignores him. Suddenly she notices a car being lifted and sent her way. She gets ready to dodge but the car stops right before it hits her. She steps aside to see a giant hand grabbing the vehicle and throwing it right back at the attacker: a modded goon. Huh, Argent wondered if they even had modded or boosts by this point. She stares at the giant hand that proceeds to shrink itself and retract back to its owner, an owner dressed in a white and red skintight suit: Red Doll. Argent recognizes her from a month ago when they fought. Red Doll gives her a cold look before jumping back into the fray. Argent rolls her eyes and she too continues the battle.

The Army begins putting up a better fight now, though a little too late Argent considers. Their numbers are dwindling; it will not be much longer before they are all knocked out. That’s when Argent hears it. Not just her, everyone, Army, vigilantes, the crowd that has formed, everyone; a piercing harrowing roar that consumes every thought in her head. Argent covers her ears instinctively like everyone else, but she can still hear it as clear as ever. For a minute everyone paralyzes, the roar never letting up. Argent tries to hold back a scream but not for long as the pain the roar causes overwhelm her. She falls to the ground, still covering her ears in a futile attempt to stop the deafening roar until it is no more.

Argent pants as she finally realizes that the roar has stopped and stands up to see everyone else doing the same.

“What the hell was that?” one of the heroes asks but no one is capable of answering him. Argent looks to everyone checking up if everyone is alright. Even the Army was hit and they are just as confused and stumbling to their feet like everyone else, so this was no weapon used against the heroes. Argent begins having an idea of what that was, but the prospect scares even her.

And then she feels it; the atmosphere quiets as if suddenly the air was sucked out of the area. She feels a tingle in her mind, like a small hand rubbing her lightly before moving on, as if she was not the one it wanted.

“Something’s wrong,” a heroine says and the others echo her worry. Argent can’t help but feel the same way. She begins preparing herself to take out her claws when she finally notices the goons are all paralyzed, standing there like statues. She turns around to see more of them doing the same; all of them, paralyzed. Like bodies without a soul, their eyes staring into the distance at nothing in particular. Almost as if they were in a trance. They look around themselves as if looking for something. One of them raises their handgun slowly, putting it in their mouth. Argent reaches out as fast as she can. Her mouth echoes to yell but no word comes. The sound of a gunshot breaks the heroes out of their confusion. Argent freezes as she stares at the body, blood on its mouth and behind their head. Then she hears another shot, and another and another and another. She turns quickly to see more goons falling, their bodies covering the ground. One of them, the one that Argent slapped away earlier, aims his shotgun to his face and shoots before Argent can reach him. The crowd panics and screams.

“Don’t just stand there! Stop them!” Argent yells at the rest of the heroes. Red Doll is the first to react as she tries to wrap herself around several of the goons but is too late. The heroes try too but it’s an uphill battle. Several of the modded or boosted goons use their own powers against themselves sometimes even hurting some of the heroes in the process. Other goons, when separated from their guns, bring out knives and other blades to finish the job. Chaos, pure chaos reigns as Argent and the others try their best to stop them. But in the end, they were too slow.

Argent stares in shock at the street filled with hundreds of bodies, everyone does, wondering what happened. And then Argent feels the ground shaking and raises her sight just in time to see the building in the distance, crumbling; the same building she saw Mastermind heading to. She does not react as the debris cloud covers her and everyone else and sirens echo in the distance.

**Bloodmoon Ave. Morning**

One would think the morning would feel better than the night. But in this case, that would be wrong. Cloudy and cold, no sunlight strong enough to pierce through, lightning echoes but no rain falls; to Julia, this is the opposite of how a morning in Los Diablos should feel like but then again this is an unusual day in Los Diablos. She pushes through the crowd, trying to reach the scene of crime; a scene she is not so certain she wants to see. When she heard that something happened in Bloodmoon avenue she did not think much of it until Angie called her and told her what has happened. Instantly Julia put on whatever she could and raced to Bloodmoon, hoping against hope that Argent was mistaken, that this could not have happened. Not again.

Her hope is destroyed, however, as she arrives. Even the cops with their trucks cannot cover the bloodstained street and the bodies covering it. She shows her plaque and is let in. Many of the heroes are tuckered in small groups talking but the look on their faces says it all: the same look she had when she first saw the effects of the Heartbreak Incident.

She finally finds Angie, away from the rest, staring into the distance where a building used to be. “Angie…” Julia says but her silver friend does not respond. She taps her on the shoulder but again Argent remains in place. Julia walks around to look at her friend in the face.

“It just… happened,” Argent begins. “In a moment we were all fighting and the next they were all…”

“It’s ok,” Julia whispers and puts a hand on Argent’s shoulder. Her friend finally meets her gaze.

“Was it like this?” she asks. Julia realizes what she is talking about and nods softly. Without any other word, Argent steps aside and walks away leaving Julia to stare at the bloodbath in front of her.

**Apartment – Morning**

You were expecting nightmares when you decided that you had no strength to stay awake even in another body. However, it seems the dreams decided that what happened was enough and let you sleep soundly. Still, the good night sleep doesn’t make this morning any easier to digest. What happened, what you did. You were used to controlling people by now, making them do what you wanted and never caring about the consequences. But this… this is different. You did not just control those people, you made them do… You did to them what… she? It? Did to those people years ago. What it did to you.

So you have been on your computer following the news, seeing what they say. In a perhaps unsurprising move, they did not mention the cause of the deaths, only that a massive battle was waged last night with the heroes emerging victorious. Nothing about the Army.

You close the laptop and begin running the scenario over and over in your head, wondering how did you let it happen. You did not expect Zeta to have recreated the weapon. Hell, he wasn’t even on the fight that night, how he even knew how to make it? Even more, however, you managed to power through its effects. You knew you had grown powerful but not this powerful. And then you did it; you took control of every single goon in that general area and made them… do it. Your range was not as big as heartbreak’s but still, it was big enough. And you even managed to do so selectively. You avoided the heroes, your crew, and the civilians. How? As much as you don’t want to know, you have to find out more, if only to know how not to do it again. The Heartbreak command. Naming it feels dirty as if you are giving it more legitimacy than it deserves. But you need the name, that way your mind can identify it easier and stop it from using it again. Or at least that’s your hope.

You shake your head, not wanting to think of the possibilities. What you need now is to figure out where Zeta is. He has no army now; any surviving goon will not want to face you after what just happened. So in his position, what would you do? If you did not have a backup plan you would try to come up with a new one. But even if you did, you would lay low for a while trying to hide from the person after you. But where? Somewhere familiar? Somewhere where you would feel safe? You have to find out what that place is soon, otherwise, Zeta might strike back with something bigger; and dangerous. Not only that but he has a weapon that can disable powers. You are going to have to find out a way to protect yourself against that. Even with your armor, it took you down, so that means it bypasses the armor; or maybe it covers you in a field.

You are half of a mind to ask Mortum, but you are not sure if you want to let her know it exists, just on the very, keyword being very, off chance she doesn’t know.

“So what you’re going to do when you find him?” you hear her voice again. You don’t bother to look over your shoulder to know it’s Jane or at least some sort of version of her your mind has conjured up. You sigh and stand up, ignoring whatever she says. “Hey, asshole. I asked you a question. After you find him, then what?” you try your best to ignore her but her nagging can be surprisingly infuriating. You wonder how she can be more annoying than Ortega.

“What do you mean?” you say finally turning to her. It’s strange. She is strange. On the one hand, she looks, moves, and behaves as you do while in her body. However, there is an edge to her that you do not see while possessing her. A sinister aura that scares you whenever you look at her.

“I mean silly, what are you going to do when you find him? Beat him up until he says sorry and promises never to do it again?” You do not answer that. You don’t know how to answer. “Surprise! I doubt that is going to work. There’s only one way to make sure he never interferes again.”

“Shut up,” you tell her and turn your back to her.

“Oh please. Get off of that high horse of yours. You are villain now, remember?”

“I have limits.” You hear her laugh hysterically.

“Oh give me a break. You beat up your ex-girlfriend to a bloody pulp and then had the balls to go visit her in the hospital. You’ve been lying to the good doctor for months and then you call her a friend. You killed a hero in cold blood and now you are befriending his girlfriend. As far as I’m concerned there’s no limits you can’t cross.”

“May I remind you that you are the one befriending those last two,” you shoot back, though you regret saying it almost immediately after.

“No, I’m just the face. You are the one living in fantasy land.”

“I’m not killing him,” she chuckles again at your words.

“Oh please. You already killed at least thirty people. And with a great move, I might add.”

“No,” you whisper.

“Yes. You liked that, didn’t you?”

“No.”

“You loved it when they were ready to take any command you gave them.” you shake your head. “You loved the feeling of knowing their lives were in your hands.”

“Shut up.”

“You even gave it a name.”

“Enough.”

“Admit it, you don’t fear it, you want it.”

“Enough!” you finally yell, turning away from her. She chuckles.

“I don’t know why you are getting so worked up. It’s not like I’m belittling you or anything. I simply want you to consider your options.” Her voice is now closer to your ear. “Think about it. We are barely off the ground. And just like you told your crew, things will only get worse from here on out. If you let him live, he will haunt you. And little by little your enemies will accumulate, and then there will be too many of them for you to stop. Zeta needs to die.” You feel a hand over your shoulder. A gloved hand. “and then we can continue with our job,” Mastermind’s voice echoes in your head and you turn around in one move but no one is there.

You shake your head; you need to wake up from whatever this is. You need to get out of here. You lie down on your bed and let your mind go blank, your consciousness slips and in a second you are now in Jane’s body.

**Gym – 9:00 am**

As you walked to the gym you kept checking to see if she appeared again. Or him. Neither of your alter egos appeared but you are still uneasy.

As you enter you find a familiar young woman hitting the bag as if it owed her money.

“Angry again?” you ask her as you pass by her.

Emily turns to you with a chuckle. “Something like that,” she says in almost a whisper. Defeated.

“I’ll go change and we can talk then,” you tell her and she gives you a nod.

Minutes later you are in your gym gear and begin sparring with her, giving her some lessons on her stance and her modus of attack. “So what’s up? You look downer than usual”

“It’s not- I just… Did you see the news?” you frown a little. Realizing where she is heading.

“I did. Fun battle that must have been, right?” you say.

“Yeah…” she whispers. You stare at her while sparring wondering what is bothering her. And the answer hits you.

“You were there?” you say, more as a comment than a question. She looks at you with shame and nods. You mentally facepalm yourself. You did not sense her. And you probably missed others too. Stupid. What if she had been affected? Or any of the other heroes? You knew it. It is too dangerous to use. One slip up and you could end up killing someone without meaning to. “So what happened? It sounded like it was a mess but the news weren’t very clear,” you say. Not for any curiosity, but because if Jane suddenly went quiet it may raise suspicion on Emily.

“Yeah. I noticed that too and… well…” you can see her tense up, fists tighten, and her face twitches. “I can’t believe they are hiding it.”

Welcome to the real world. “Hide what?” you say. She snaps back into reality at the sound of your voice.

“Oh. I was… uh…”

You cut her off before she continues. “You know we have established how bad at lying you are, right?” she chuckles a bit and nods.

“It’s just… things did not go as smoothly as the news portrays it.”

“Really? What was it like then?” you ask. She breathes in and begins telling you about what she was doing last night. She was patrolling the streets when she stumbled onto a crowd of other heroes. They were discussing a commotion going on at Bloodmoon ave. She became interested once she heard that Mastermind was spotted at the scene and joined the group. When they arrived there was a massive battle going on between members of The Army of Mastermind and several vigilantes including Argent. The battle was hard-fought surprisingly, as the Army turned out to having boosts and mods in their ranks. The police arrived to contain the situation and keep the civilians away from the battle. Everything was going well until the mind piercing roar. Your telepathic roar. Soon after she felt as if something was going on but could not quite understand what. Then it happened.

“We tried to stop them. But somehow they found ways to… to…” she stumbles on her words and you stop her with a hand on her shoulder. “It was them. Mastermind. I’m sure of it.” You both sit as you continue your conversation.

“How do you figure?” you ask.

“They are a telepath. That much has been established. I’ve been investigating.”

You begin to shake in your mind. What else has she found out? “What else?”

“Not much else. Though I have heard some rumors…”

“What rumors?” You snap. She closes the distance between the two of you and whispers.

“Some heroes said that something similar happened some years ago. Almost exactly the same apparently. I don’t have the details, but apparently many people died, even heroes.” You try not to gulp as she speaks of that day.

“So what does that have to do with what happened at Bloodmoon?”

“Well, it made me wonder what if- what if that was Mastermind too, or what if they had something to do with that too?”

Oh no. You mentally facepalm yourself again. Of course, this would happen too. “What do you mean?” you say playing the ignorant friend.

“What if Mastermind has been operating for far longer than some months?” you hope your nervousness is not showing right now. Otherwise, she would put two and two together and that would be a bigger problem. And of course, there’s Ortega and Steel. Both of them will most likely think the exact same thing that she does. Great.

“If that’s the case, then that means that they are much more powerful than people think.”

“Yes, probably,” she says nonchalantly. It surprises you how quickly she went from shaking to focus mode.

“What do you mean probably?” you say, setting the stage for the exchange to come. She looks at you with confusion. “This guy is a telepath powerful enough to make people kill themselves. And you are going after them because…?”

“I’m a hero, remember? It’s what we do,” she shrugs off.

“Yes. I’ve also seen heroes who know when they are outmatched.” She stares at you with what you can only interpret as hidden anger and acknowledgment.

“I’m not outmatched,” she says coldly.

“They are a telepath. And they did that. What do you have against them? You can stretch?” A gross oversimplification but still driving the point home. And she does have something against you. Her ridiculously difficult to read mind. Still, something tells you she would not survive the command either.

“I can’t give it up,” she finally says and stands up.

“Why?” you ask as you do too and follow her.

“Because I can’t, ok? I just can’t.”

“Liar. What is it?” she does not answer but you know she is reaching her limit. So you decide to push. “Emily. Emily,” you begin but she cuts you off. You prepare for the explosion of emotion.

“They killed him, ok!” she practically yells as she turns to you. You are glad the gym is empty at the moment. “The hero they killed, he was my boyfriend,” she continues as she stares down at the mat. “I told him that we needed to go big, to get some top villains. When I saw what Mastermind did to the Rangers I thought that was our chance. But the day we set to investigate I got sick and had to stay at home. I told him to go, I told him there was no way he was going to stumble onto them. And I was wrong. He did stumble onto Mastermind, and now he’s dead…”

You take a step closer, putting a hand on her shoulder. She calms down a bit. Not entirely, but enough. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

“It’s ok. I… I shouldn’t have blown up on you like that. It’s just… I need a break.” you nod and let her walk away. She changes and gives you a soft farewell before leaving. You doubt there’s more you can do. Shit, you need a break.

**Hideout – afternoon**

It’s been a while since the crew has seen Jane so you decide it is time they did again. Especially after what happened, they need someone who’s face they have seen a dozen times, a friendly face, Jane’s face. Not the guilty, downed face of Jeremy. You are half expecting to only find a couple of them but you are surprised to see all of them here.

“Jane,” you hear Rosie greet you as she appears in your view

“What’s up, Rosie. Everything alright?” you ask. She simply nods a bit and pulls you off to somewhere more private. You can feel all of their sights on you.

“Listen, did you spoke with… him?” you can practically see the fear in her.

You sigh and nod. They haven’t exactly shared what they think but you can tell they are undecided about you. Or rather Mastermind.

“Are they nervous?” you ask. She nods.

“A bit. Pelayo is more or less fine. Ward is hard to know. Zaza has been shaking all day long and Nehal has been hitting the bag for hours now.” You nod to her and walk towards them. Pelayo meets you halfway through.

“Ma’am,” he says.

“It’s alright Pelayo. No need to be so formal.”

“Aren’t you going to call a debriefing,” he asks.

“No. I just came to check up on you guys.” Silence fills up the place for a few seconds as you stare at one another. “I spoke with him. He wanted to be here but, some things interfered.” He nods and returns to the gym section of the hideout. You look at the others as they each exercise. Pelayo and Ward prepare to spar, Zaza shoots some bottles, and Nehal is still hitting the bag as if her life depended on it. All of them are coping, you can tell that much. They are not sure, but they don’t want to leave, or maybe they are not certain of the consequences of leaving.

The sounds of glove hitting bag echo in your head as you approach Nehal, her eyes solely focused on it. “How are you doing Nehal.”

“Fine Ma’am.”

You stare at her as she continues her barrage. You try but you fail to keep your opinion to yourself. “You are putting too much pressure on your punches. That will simply tire you out faster.” She stares at you as if doubting you. She opens her mouth to say something but stops just as it is about to come out. “Remember,” you continue, “the strength of your punches come from your stance, not your arms. Having great upper body strength is a good bonus, but is not the end all be all. Here, watch me.” You show her your stance and she imitates you. In short order, she is throwing better punches than she was used to, and you can see the satisfaction in her face.

Zaza almost stumbles when he hears you come. “oh hi ma’am. What’s up?”

“You know I wish we could stop that Ma’am stuff. I may be your boss but seriously.”

“Well, do you have an alternative?” you think about it but you come up with nothing. You don’t want them to call Jane by her name yet. You don’t feel you are on that level with them yet. And to be honest, you are not even sure you should.

“So, how’s the aiming?”

“eh, it’s fine. Honestly, I could shoot these bottles blindfold. It’s not much practice, more like a hobby by this point.”

“Would it help to get a better shooting range?” He thinks about it for a few seconds before nodding shyly. “I’ll see what we can do. To be frank, I think it’s time for a change in scenery.”

“Are you- Are you sure that’s a good idea. I mean- will he accept it?” you hear the fear in his tone, the stumbling of words, the doubt.

“It’s alright. I’m sure he will understand the need of it,” you turn to leave but you stop at the sound of his voice.

“Did you know him? Under the mask I mean?” you turn to him giving him a quizzical look. You know he is not really talking about if Jane knew what Mastermind looked like. He is actually asking if Jane knew what Mastermind was capable of. And who he is. You nod.

“I did. I also know who’s after them.”

**Mortum’s lab**

You are starting to wonder if Mortum’s lab is like a second house to you now. You spend almost as much time here as you do outside. In all honesty, you could stay here all week long. Better than be at your apartment thinking.

“Something bothering you Ma cherié?”

“Nah it’s nothing. Just thinking.” You sip your drink as you look somewhere else. Nowhere else.

“Does it has to do with your job?” she says as she sits in front of you on the other side of the table.

You nod. “Yeah, things just got a lot more complicated.” That’s one word for it. Shitstorm would be another.

“What happened?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard.”

“Ma cherié I may have my contacts but I don’t pay attention to every single little thing that happens around here. I got better things to do than gossiping,” she says pretending to be offended.

“Let’s just say my boss little mission went… not completely right. Something happened.” Mortum stares at you with genuine curiosity. You consider your options. Do you trust her enough to tell her? “What do you know of powers disabling weapons?” you blurt out.

“More expensive to create than power dampeners. Power dampeners alone require enormous energy reserves. That’s why boosts prisons have such big generators. Fitting that into a gun would be next to impossible. That’s without adding the fact that it is impossible.” She says with a mixture of curiosity and dismissal.

“What do you mean?”

“Dampeners disable powers by overwhelming the boost’s special organs with a certain signal. I don’t know the specifics but what I do know is that the signal only works for a couple of seconds. That’s why dampeners need to be on all the time, so they continue sending the signal.”

“That sounds surprisingly inconvenient,” you say genuinely surprised.

“We don’t even know how the drug changes the body, let alone how to disable it. The truth is powers become a part of the hero as much as any other part, like a limb. Your body changes on a cellular level. Try to imagine how hard to disable something like that is. Now imagine how hard it is to fit all of that into a gun?”

You keep silent, thinking. Then she speaks again.

“Though I did hear a rumor about a prototype that did exactly that. But the specifics elude me. Last I heard, it was too expensive and the only prototype was stolen long ago.” You almost snap at that. So Zeta did not recreate the weapon, he merely stole it and probably adapted it to his suit.

“What about powering through the effects of such a weapon?” At that Mortum looks at you with a knowing smile, almost as if expecting you to know the answer.

“Machines are like people Ma cherié. They have limits. The powers of a boost, on the other hand, do not. Like I said we still have no idea how exactly the drug works. If the boost is powerful enough, they can overwhelm the dampeners and the effects of such a weapon. Imagine a bodybuilder being tied with some straps that are barely strong enough to hold them. Now imagine that after pushing for a couple of minutes the bodybuilder manages to break through the straps. That is what happens between a dampener and a boost.”

“Why don’t we hear more stories of boosts breaking through the dampeners?” you wonder out loud.

“Because most boosts are lazy, Ma cherié. They get superpowers and think they have all the power in the world and have no need for more. If the majority of them focused on practicing I imagine we would have more boosts escaping the prisons.” She says nonchalantly as she heads back to the center of her lab to work on something.

“Interesting,” you say and take another sip, staring at your reflection in a far off mirror. 


	11. M.I.A.

**Dock – Morning**

Sometimes you wonder if the world likes toying with you. Whenever you decide to go back to your past, it always seems to happen on a cloudy day, threatening to rain at any moment. But alas, the rain is unimportant right now. What’s about to happen is. How long has it been? A very long time, more than a decade since you last saw Trevor. Your handler, the woman who was in charge of your team. An important person to the program too.

The cuckoo program existed long before you were even born, but up until you came along and then Trevor took charge of you, it was more of an arm of the Farm than an actual program. It was a last resort to the more proven and safer normal Re-genes. The problem of the Re-genes was always the simple fact that there were missions where if caught, the government could be in some serious problem. Normal human agents were used, yes, but more and more they ended up meeting with boosts who could find them out and take them out with little problem. And giving soldiers anything other than mods was not an option. So when absolute secrecy was needed but no one wanted to risk sending normal Re-genes and human agents, the cuckoos were sent instead. Expert infiltrator units that could walk into a place without anybody noticing. They looked and acted like normal people thanks to a more advanced education compared to the other units. Sometimes sent alone and other times sent in small teams, the cuckoos were a powerful weapon. Too powerful for some.

People like the good old General held the program back for years for fear that the extra education and free will would cause the new units to rebel. People like Trevor however, saw the advantage and the power of such weapons and fought to nurture and advance the program. Thanks to her and many others, cuckoos were used more and more for infiltration and extraction until they became the de facto spies and the blue Re-genes remained as the shock troops. Two sides of the same coin.

You, Alpha, and Zeta were part of the new batch, with better education and training to make you better infiltrators. Kappa was a normal shock troop before Trevor noticed that she was lightly smarter and more capable than the others. Although they could not change the color of her skin yet, her power of invincibility more than made up for it along with the mods making her a lot faster and agile than normal people. You were Trevor’s personal team, the one she sent in missions she wanted to have a direct hand in.

“Geesh, enough with the reminiscing. It’s boring,” Jane says in her ever more infuriating voice. You take back every time you thought Ortega was annoying. At least she didn’t know what you were thinking. Most of the time anyway. But this, whatever this is, far and wide surpasses Ortega.

“I suggest you cover your ears then, ‘cause we are going to be here for a while,” you shoot.

“Because Miss I’m too good for the world will make you wait?”

“Miss what?” you ask wondering what she means.

“You forget I’m in your head? I swim in that ocean all day long and I see everything. Even those little memories of your old team.”

“Get to the point,” you snap.

“The point is that she’s clearly an arrogant bitch who thinks the world’s too low for her magnanimous presence,” she says in mock pride.

“And?” you question.

“And… I got nothing. I forgot where I was going,” you stare at her dumbfounded. Talk about pointless.

“Then can you please give me one day of peace and quiet.”

She chuckles. “Now where’s the fun in that? No, I love being the ghost of Christmas past, or maybe present. But future is so creepy. Damn it, I can’t choose.”

You sigh. “What are you anyway?”

“I don’t know, you tell me.” You wish you had a mirror because you are certain your eyes are currently bigger than your fists.

“What? Me? I’m asking for a reason, I don’t know.”

“And because of that neither do I,” you are beginning to hate that stupid cocky smile she puts on whenever she knows she got you. It’s the same smile you use as her with Ortega. Does Ortega feel the same whenever you give her that smile or is it just you? “Pretty sure it’s just you,” she says in response to your thought.

“Don’t read my mind,” you growl and turn away from her.

“Hey, it’s not my fault. I’m in your head, it’s like we live in the same apartment. You say something out loud, I hear it. If you don’t like that, go lock yourself in your room.”

You wish you could.

An hour passes before you hear a car incoming. The Jane… thing or whatever she is, has disappeared by this point. You position yourself so that if anything happens you have a way to run away. Even if she has set a trap and covered all exits with units, you know the place like the back of your hand. You spent the last week scouting the place, as yourself, your puppet, and even sent your crew to make sure. You could say you over scouted the place. But even if you know she stands to win nothing by capturing you, and in fact, stands to lose quite a lot, it doesn’t hurt to be certain. Trust but verify as they say. The car that parks in front of you is not exactly what you expected. It clean and looks good as new, but it’s a cheaper car to what someone like Trevor would have. A rental probably. She is making sure no one knows she is here.

The door opens and a figure dressed from head to toe steps out. It takes you a second to finally see her face. Both of your eyes lock for the first time in almost more than a decade. You swore you would never see one another again, that that time would be the last, even if it was at the end of a gun. “It’s been a while, Beta. Or should I call you Mastermind instead?” You are almost caught off guard by the mention. Of course she knows. Trevor has always been a cold reader. She can read body language like a book and pinpoint the exact tells of a person. Far more than anybody you have ever met; even yourself.

“I take it you are not interested in my arrest?” you say casually, trying to diminish the current tension.

“You have yet to become a big threat yet. And even if you did, it would be below me. Let the cops and the rangers deal with you. Or even the farm, if they can even keep you.”

You chuckle a bit. “So you knew.”

She brings out a cigarette and lights it as she stares out into the water. “I did,” she begins while blowing smoke out of her mouth. “I figured you wouldn’t last long after that. But here you are again, free and none the worse for wear.” You want to shoot that statement down, but you keep your mouth shut. The last thing you want is to blurt out your own emotions to someone who can use them. You also don’t fail to notice that her mind is quiet. Not unreadable, but quiet. She doesn’t even need a dampener, or one of the famously dangerous anti telepathy pills, to stop you from reading her mind.

You stand beside her and silence dominates for thirty seconds. “What happened after I escaped?” you manage to get out, although it hurts all the same.

She blows more smoke away, taking her time. “A lot of things. Management was scared you would come back with an army or something so they changed locations, abandoned the old building. Many Re-genes went MIA and the entire program almost collapsed. But it survived thanks to one scapegoat.” You hold back a chuckle, you know who the scapegoat was: the good general. His confrontational attitude towards you and your team can be easily blamed on for the disaster that came after. Then again in a way it did.

**Years ago – Farm**

You remember that day. You were done training with Zeta when you heard whispers and went on to investigate. “Why are you telling me,” one of them said.

“Because my time table has been moved. I have no other way-” the whisper stopped as you walked around the corner to find Alpha and Kappa. You asked what they were talking about but Alpha, as masterfully as ever, changed the subject with little effort. You didn’t look too much into it because you trusted Alpha. Trusted her not to do something stupid. She was the smartest of the four of you, being the leader and all.

“Remember what you told me?” Alpha said one night as you were both once again on the roof.

“I’ve told you a lot of things. Going to have to be more specific,” you said.

She chuckled a bit and turned to you. “Almost a year ago, I asked you if you wanted something from out there.”

Your eyes widened at the memory. “Oooooooooooohhhhhhhh right. That. Yeah no, I forgot. What about it?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking…” she fell silent and turned back to the sight in front of you. Nothing but trees all around, surrounding the building. “Soon, it will be a reality,” you heard her mutter, not certain if you were supposed to hear it. You wish you had asked her about it, maybe you could have stopped it…

**Present – Dock**

“What about Zeta?” you ask.

“He became one of our top units, dealt with missions others had failed dozens of time. We tried to reintegrate him into a team but it was obvious we could not recreate what we lost without reeducation. And reeducation tends to also delete your skills so it was decided to keep him as he was.” You tighten your fist and hold back whatever it is that is punching through your head right now. “He went MIA on a mission years ago and has been presumed dead ever since.” Huh, so he faked his death. “Why? Is he alive and free like you?” she says with a small hint of curiosity but little else. You wonder if she would even bother to go after him or let you handle him.

“He is,” you say coldly and keep it there. She doesn’t need to know the rest. Sincerely you doubt she even cares. Then again maybe she does… or maybe that’s what she wants you to believe. Or maybe she wants you to be paranoid. Paranoid people are always among the easiest to manipulate.

“Heh, you are still keeping information to yourself. Glad those lessons stuck with you,” she says with a hint of pride. Yeah, besides the training and education you got, Trevor made sure to impart all of you with her “Wisdom” too. Never trust anyone, always keep a bit of info to yourself, and always pay attention to every word someone says, even if you find such words pointless or useless.

“Had a good teacher,” you respond with little to no emotion.

“You did. So listen to this teacher one last time: stop chasing the past. It has nothing of worth.”

You gruff. “The past came chasing me, not me it.”

“Wrong. Sidestep working with the Rangers? Mastermind and their crew of criminals?”

You get where she is going, but she doesn’t understand that the first one simply happened while the second one is a necessity. Hollow Ground does not control his empire alone. You will not do any different. You tell her as such but all she does is chuckle.

“You were always sentimental. It’s why you worked so well with the rest of the team. And even now, you still are.”

“I’ve changed.”

“People don’t change, Beta. They add layers that cover their old selves but deep down they are all still the same. You should know that.” You do. Made sure to hammer that lesson on all of you.

“Then why bother giving me advice?”

“I said people don’t change, but they do add layers. So keep adding more.” She drops the cigarette and steps on it, signaling the end of the conversation. As she walks towards her car, you wonder if you should ask it. You don’t want to, but the impulse overtakes you and you turn to her.

“What happened with Alpha?” Trevor turns around, a look of disappointment on her.

“What did I just said?” you look away in shame, like a child being chastised. You did not expect Trevor to be capable of making you feel that way. She sighs. “She went MIA on a mission long ago. We don’t know what happened.” you feel your thoughts threatening to overwhelm you, to swarm you like they did back at Bloodmoon. It’s only by sheer willpower that you hold them down, including the tears. “She was not the same Alpha you and I met, Beta.”

“I know,” you do, but still…

“I’m sorry.” She sighs, sounding so genuine, you wonder if it is real. But you don’t get anything else as she gets in the car and drives away. Vanessa Trevor, the eternal enigma.

You look back to the water, wondering. You wonder what Alpha would say… would she have been fine with how everything went, or would she be disappointed… You always thought that if you found a way to reverse the effects of reeducation, you could one day get an answer. Now there is no answer to get… no hope… only the tears down your cheeks… and rage. They will fall. When you are at the top, you will make sure they fall, make them pay. Make them beg for the sweet release of death. A release you will not give them. But first, you have Zeta to think about.

He faked his death and escaped to get revenge on you. He has been silent and will probably continue to be. If he does have a backup plan, it would benefit him to wait it out, to wait for the moment you drop your guard. Which means you absolutely can’t. But then, what’s next? What can you do to track him down?

“How about letting him come?” you hear Jane say behind you. “You keep trying to find him. Why don’t you just sit and wait? You said it yourself, if you drop your guard, he will come. And that’s exactly what you need.” She has a point, a very good point. You can’t track him down, but you can lure him back. And knowing Zeta he will spring at the chance if he sees it. You turn to her, seeing the grin on her face that always seems to scare you.

“You make a very good point. Let’s play as the mouse then,” you say as her grin seems to grow even wider now.


	12. The Rise of Sidestep Part 1: Like a Doll...

**Years ago – The Farm**

You remember the days when it happened, a domino effect of circumstances set on by the last person you expected it to do. Your team was on the final days of a yearlong mission where a politician had ties to a rising criminal organization with a very powerful boost at the helm. You and Alpha posed as a rich couple interested in supporting the politician. You remember Alpha got way into the role much more than you did, always hugging you and kissing you when you least expected it. Not that you minded at the time, you and Alpha have been playing this little game long before the mission, but had to do it quietly. Thanks to General Slyther. This mission, in particular, gave Alpha all the freedom she needed to show you how she felt.

_But it was a mistake, a very stupid one._

The mission was a success because of course, it was, you were Trevor’s team. You never really failed. What could be counted as failures still had small victories that Slyther could not deny, even at his angriest. When you came back, Trevor congratulated all of you much to Slyther’s annoyance, as he instantly intervened.

“Stop your sappy reinforcement, Ms. Trevor. The dogs did their jobs, dismiss them.”

She stared at him with the same contempt that we all did and said, “Positive reinforcement goes a long way of making them better at their job Slyther. Proven by the scientists themselves.”

“And yet you are the only one who does it. Every other unit succeeds without your so-called ‘positive reinforcement.’ Enough of this. Cuckoos you are dismissed.”

You held back the urge to remind him that your team has a bigger success rate than most of the others. Maybe you should have told him anyway, considering it changed nothing of what was to come.

That night you and Alpha got back to the roof one last time, staring into the woods, side by side.

“I wonder if this will ever get old,” Alpha chuckled.

“Well let’s see. We have been sneaking up here for years and we have yet to fall asleep out of sheer boredom, so I’ll say not anytime soon,” you responded.

“Yeah,” she sighed, “you’re right. I’m going to miss it.”

“What?” you blurted out, turning to her. She turns to you with eyes wide open.

“Oh, uh, nothing,” she began and turned back towards the woods. “Was just thinking that if Ms. Trevor moves we will probably move with her, and if it happens, well, I’ll miss this.” A quite elaborated thought if you think about it yourself. And you told her as such. “I’m smarter than you, remember,” she nudged you, chuckling. “I always have more complex thoughts.” You accepted it at the time, just as you had accepted it before. Maybe indeed you were not as smart as she was, because if you had, you would have called bullshit. But you didn’t, you just accepted it and let it pass.

You remember her getting closer to you, turning you around to look straight into your eyes. Eyes that could pierce your mind and stick there forever, in a soft tranquil state, swimming in them. They made you feel safe, secure, that nothing could happen, that, like her, this moment was indestructible. And her lips touched yours, a soft rub that brought you back from that gaze you loved so much. It’s funny how soft they were despite her invulnerability, they were as soft as a drop of water, effortlessly sliding around yours. You did not want to stop looking at her eyes, but you also wanted this to continue. An impossible choice, so she made it for you, closing her eyes and turning her head sideways to deepen the kiss. You brought her body closer to yours as the kiss deepened, a dream you did not want to end, a dream you wish had continued. And the sudden impact of the door opening brought you back to reality, much to your chagrin.

“Time’s up. Soldier’s are coming,” Kappa said with Zeta right behind her. Alpha gave you an apologetic look before turning towards the other exit. It wasn’t an exit per se, but it was a small ledge you four could easily hide in. Easily as in not the first time you have done that. In the outside anyway. You were never really caught before this point on the rooftop so this was an experiment to see if it worked.

The four of you stood tightly packed together as the soldiers busted through the door, forming a perimeter. Strange, a lot more than you had seen at any part of the facility. And soon after you realized why as General Slyther steps through the door with the same look of superiority he always has. You wonder if he ever had an off button for it.

“Did you find them?” he asked one of the soldiers. The soldier shakes their head and Slyther huffed. “Unit Alpha 203, if you are here, show yourself, now!” he yelled. You looked at Alpha but she just shrugged her shoulders. You remained hidden for several minutes, Slyther had surprising patience now that you think about it, before he finally decided to leave. As soon as he left, you questioned Alpha.

“What was all that about?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Slyther is pissy again?” she said with a shrug and a smile. You glared.

“Alpha.”

“It’s fine Jeremy. You know it’s not the first time Slyther comes looking for one of us because he doesn’t like us. Come on, we’ll talk with Ms. Trevor. She has to know.” you kept your glare but nodded and followed her back. But even then you could feel someone else’s glare directed at Alpha. When you turned you realized it was Kappa. Strange, Kappa barely showed any emotion most of the time. But once again, as ignorant as you were then, you didn’t think much on it and went back to your quarters. Next day was quite the show.

Trevor did not say anything but the expression on her face was enough to show that she was unaware of Slyther’s search. And she was pissed. You remember swallowing hard at the sight. Almost none of her features changed except for her eyebrows but it was more than enough, to convey her fury. You had never seen her angry. She dismissed you almost immediately and called her secretary, probably to call the good General. But before you walked out, he was already here.

“There you are,” he said eyeing up Alpha with disdain.

“What about it scarface?” Alpha said. Sometimes you forgot how much she liked antagonizing the general.

“You will not address me until I order it too. And even less in such a manner.”

“Of course sir. Permission to tell you to kiss my ass,” she said with mock obedience and an exaggerated salute.

“Alpha please,” Zeta said sheepishly at her. As Slyther walked closer Trevor interfered.

“I have on good information that you proceeded without my authorization general.”

“I don’t need your authorization for anything Trevor.”

“You do when it falls on my jurisdiction. In this case my team.” She emphasizes ‘my.’

“Your unit has been compromised. Unit Alpha has gone beyond her design and is en route to corrupting the rest. Starting with it,” he pointed at you and for the first time, you saw Alpha almost flare-up.

“May I ask what evidence you have of this,” Trevor asked, standing between the four of you and Slyther.

“Of course,” he responded with mocked obedience and hands her over a tablet with a video; a video of you and Alpha last night kissing on the roof.

“It’s this it?” Trevor responded unimpressed.

“It’s that it! These dogs are not even supposed to know this sort of things,” his eyes flare up in rage.

“They had just gone on a mission that required this exact thing out of them. And besides, even if it was something more, what about it? They do their job well, better actually. Out of all the cuckoo units in this facility, my team has the highest success rate. Whatever they do in between missions, as long as it does not interfere with their performance, makes no difference to me,” she said, walking towards the general and he is forced to step back. Then he stopped and glared back at her.

“Ah, but you see general, it does affect their performance. What if in the middle of a mission they decide that the “lives” of their fellow dogs are more important than the mission? You would risk the success of a mission because of your neglect. And how about if they decide that they no longer want to do any more missions? What then? We will have to reeducate them and waste years of investment and skillsets when we could have stopped the cancer before it spread.”

“General Slyther. If such a thing were to happen, I will deal with it myself. You are stepping out of bounds. This is my responsibility, not yours,” Trevor said in a calmer albeit more intimidating tone.

“NO! I will not let you risk the people of this facility and the reputation of our army for the sake of your ego! I have put up with your pathetic measures for long enough. Soldiers, prepare Unit Alpha 203 for reeducation.” Immediately all four of you spring into action. Even without your powers you were still far better trained than any soldier. No way in hell were you going to let Slyther get away with this.

“Frank don’t you dare! This is my team. I will take this to the secretary of defense-” but before she could continue, Slyther slapped her away with almost inhuman strength. You then heard the sound of something coming from his arm. You know that sound: the sound of mods, old ones at that.

“When I’m done here and explain it to the secretary, they will understand and accept my reasoning,” he muttered. “Unit Alpha 203, stand down and prepare for reeducation.”

“Yeah, how about you go fuck yourself,” she answered in her typical cocky tone. The soldiers prepared, but before any of them could do anything, Kappa was on them faster than any of you. She may not have her invisibility, but her mods still made her fast enough to appear out of nowhere. Several soldiers fell down injured and that was the cue for the rest of you to tag in. And there you were all four of you fighting off a dozen soldiers. Without powers, you relied on your skills and you realized just how good Alpha really was. She always relied on her strength and endurance, there was really no reason not to. But you always saw her training, practicing and learning new moves on the fly. And here all of that skill came into play. She was ruthless and minimal, nothing flashy or dramatic, just punches and kicks aimed at specific points, most of them to the liver, though some also went to joints and you were certain you saw some legs and arms contorted in ways they shouldn’t ever be.

Kappa fought as she always did, dodging and evading attacks, working through her opponents' attacks to counter. The same reckless abandon that most re-genes take, but unlike them, with elegance and making sure never to get tagged. You and Zeta fought side by side, although you clearly had more experience considering your powers weren’t always all that useful in combat, whereas Zeta always relied on his teleportation. You distracted your opponents, while Zeta snuck up behind them and took them down.

“That’s enough!” you heard a familiar voice yell, and before you knew it, a gloved hand wrapped around your throat and lifted you up. “Unit Alpha 203, stand down. Or I’ll terminate unit Beta 010,” the fight ended there. With your weak ass being lifted by the General and used as a hostage. Alpha stared worried at you and then looked at Kappa and Zeta too as if she was thinking about something. And she knelt down, raising her arms in defeat. You tried to say something but you had no voice thanks to Slyther’s choke. The unharmed soldiers moved in and cuffed Alpha, Kappa, and Zeta. When Slyther released his grip on you, you got cuffed too.

“Alpha no,” you yelled as they began to take her while the general ordered the soldier to take you to a cell.

“It’s ok,” she whispers, smiling and with tears rolling out of her eyes.

“No.”

“It’s ok, it’s alright. I’m sorry. I love you…”

“Alpha!” was the last thing you heard yourself say before it all went black.

**Farm – Cell – Hours later**

You didn’t know how long you were out but it did not matter. It was over. Soon you were going be reeducated and turned into someone else, an empty shell to be remade. All because of one stupid mistake, one you should have known better. Now thanks to it, Alpha, Kappa, Zeta and you were all going to disappear.

_Your fault, it was your fault._

You rested your head against the wall as you waited for that final fate, where you would live the rest of that life without knowing who you were, without remembering them. Alpha’s kisses and quips, Kappa’s cold but caring stare, Zeta’s shy but friendly voice. All of it, as if it never happened, just another leaf blown away by the wind… but you didn’t want that. You don’t want to give up all of it. You can’t, there has to be a way out, you can’t let them erase all of it. What would be the point of it all if it’s just whisked away? It can’t end like this. You banged on the door, trying to get the attention of the guards, begging them not to do it, begging them to tell you what you had to do to resolve it, make up for it. So that you, Alpha, Kappa, and Zeta could go back to how things were, to how it all was. You promise to never do it again, to never hug or kiss Alpha again, if it means that they will be back and keep their memories, their personalities. But the guards did not care and laughed at you, taunted you. Told you to “be quiet, dog.” You fell down on your knees, arms against the door. Defeated, broken.

“Not like this…” you whispered. “Not like this…”

And then it happened. The lights went out, darkness surrounded you, everyone yelled and asked what was going on. The emergency lights turned on, covering everything in red, but you noticed something else, something that shouldn’t be happening, something you have not felt in almost a day; you were hearing the scared thoughts of the two guards in your cell. And they were inside your cell, telling you to lie down on your stomach and put your hands behind your back. But that was not going to happen. You heard their scared thoughts, you heard more than you thought you could. You stared at them and smiled as you felt the next step one of them was going to take. You acted immediately, kicking the man down right as he lifted his foot. The other one did not have time to react as you pushed him against the wall headfirst, his head bouncing inside his helmet. The downed one tried to get up but you locked him in a rear-naked chokehold and knocked him out.

You grabbed one of their guns and ammo and walked out of your cell only to be received by a group of five soldiers raising their guns at you. You tried searching for a cover but there was none, a wide-open space with no cover. Shit.

“Get on your knees,” they yelled and you begrudgingly obeyed. So much for your great escape. But then one of them fell down; cut in half. The others tried to yell but they were quickly cut down as well. You didn’t saw anything, only blood sliding down from an invisible blade. You couldn’t help but smile.

“Kappa!” you yelled and instantly the invisible form was visible. You never thought you would ever see the day were Kappa would smile, but you did. The biggest smile adorned her face as she ran to you, hugged you before you could get up.

“Are you alright?” Kappa asked as she released you.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. What’s going on?” you ask because you were curious about this.

“Alpha. This was Alpha’s plan to get everyone out. Turn the lights out and get all those who wanted to get out, including us. She’s been planning this for years.” What? Years? Alpha? All of this was her?

“Who else knows?” you asked.

“No one. Only me.”

“Why you? How long?” you asked as your rage began to rise.

“She only told me a couple of days ago, ok? She was waiting for the right and was planning of doing this much more quietly, but Slyther began investigating and she needed to get the EMP in the main generator,” she pauses as she lets you swallow everything in. “She needed someone who could get in without anyone else knowing. The best one at that.” she finished. You anger somewhat subsided as you put the pieces together. Alpha's been planning this for years and all by herself?

“Why didn’t she say anything?”

“To protect us. She did not want anyone else to risk it…” the look on Kappa’s face said she understood what you were feeling, she felt it too when Alpha told her. “Come on, we have to find Zeta and Alpha,” she said, suddenly back to her cold demeanor but offering you her hand. You take it and stand up, ready to find your friends and get out of here.

It surprised you how many Re-genes wanted to get out, not just cuckoos, but also blue ones. What should have been you and Kappa against the world, turned into you, Kappa, and dozens of others against the soldiers. But the battles were far from one-sided and hundreds died. You and Kappa walked through hallway after hallway, some paths blocked by fire, others by soldiers ordered to shoot on sight.

A bullet grazed your arm and you took cover, as a re-gene with wind control abilities blew the soldiers against the walls. But then what you did expect happened, another re-gene came in and attacked the one who had just saved your life. Obviously, not all re-genes thought of getting out, and most fought against the escapees. Kappa dragged you off of the ground as the two re-genes duked it out. But in one motion Kappa took out a small knife and threw it at the enemy re-gene, hitting her on the back of the neck. The re-gene fell down, probably dead, and the wind re-gene nodded at the two of you.

The two of you wandered through the halls, passing through dozens of bodies, searching for the room, the reeducation room. Where Alpha was most likely to be. It didn’t take long for the two of you to decide to go after Alpha first since she was running the most risk. As shy as Zeta was, he could take care of himself just as well as any of you. So you decided to trust that he would keep himself alive long enough while you searched for Alpha. Yes, search and find Alpha so you can all get out of here. Suddenly it dawned on you that all of your dreams could now be a reality. To get out of here, to see the world, to live in it. And all of it with Alpha, Kappa, and Zeta at your side. Maybe explore the cities, go to the beach, fly to other countries, maybe even scale the Everest if you were feeling bold. There was so much you could do now. Just like she said days ago, ‘soon, it will all be a reality.’ You finally found the room but just as you were going to wrap your hand around the handle, a sudden pain invades you and you turn with a scream. You looked at your hand to find a small knife deep into your right hand.

“Units Beta 010 and Kappa 331 stand down and return to your quarters immediately. This is your final warning,” you heard a very familiar monotone voice and turned to its source. Delta.

“Delta listen just let us get-” before you finished Kappa pulled you out of the way as a whip covered in spikes passed you by.

“He’s not going to listen,” Kappa told you as she took a stance. You took yours right next to her.

“You will be reassigned back to my unit once your reeducation is complete Kappa 331.”

“I prefer my current team Delta,” she responded before charging in. You stood back, knowing full well you will only get in the way. As she always does with others, Kappa danced through Delta’s whip with little effort. But Delta was just as fast as even when she caught him in the middle of an attack he managed to dodge all the same. In honesty that’s how you could describe their fight: a dance, each one doing a move meant to pass the defenses of the other but the target always dodging at the last second. It soon became clear you were only witnessing half of the fight. The other half was happening too fast for your eyes to see, only in your telepathy you realized this, as Kappa’s thoughts spoke of attacks from both her and her opponent that you could not see. You wondered why she did not turn invisible, why she was fighting him head-on, then in her scattered thoughts you caught a glimpse of knowledge; Delta had modded eyes that could see heat. Meaning he could see her even if she turned invisible. A draw, tie, stalemate. There was no way one could get through the other’s defenses. And she was clearly not trying to, a trap. She’s pushing Delta to focus only on her, to never take his eyes off of her, because if he did she would take him out. But if he didn’t, you could easily sneak up on him and take him down. Kappa has him between a rock and a hard place. He knows it, but can’t come up with a solution, this is clearly too much for his brain to handle.

You smile as you take out the knife of your hand, biting back a scream. You take point, ready to do what Kappa just did minutes ago. A thought screams on your head to do it now, her thought. This is what it was like to fight with Kappa by your side. You were always the primary infiltrator, you got in, extracted, and got out before they saw you. And when it was time to fight, Kappa would do just this, keep them occupied while the real threat, you, snuck behind them. You fought many battles together for so long that you did not communicate through words anymore but through thoughts. She would always think of something hoping you would catch it, knowing the information you needed. When you fought together, you were not just a team, but an unit working in tandem. You did as the thought said and threw the knife aiming it at the base of Delta’s neck.

And then the knife was swept away by the whip, and you could see the eyes of Delta boring into you. Big mistake. As he stared into you Kappa’s blade tore through the back of his neck and out the front. Gurgling, Delta did one final move and threw his whip at Kappa wrapping her in it. Damn it! You ran to her almost immediately as Delta fell, pulling on the whip and the spikes tore into Kappa, slashing and tearing at her skin. You catch her just as the whip untangles, leaving Kappa covered in cuts, but alive.

“Scared me there for a second,” you said as you helped her up.

“So did I,” she responded with a chuckle. She limped beside you towards the door ready to free Alpha and get out of there.

The scientists cowered at the sight of Kappa, grouping on one side of the room. The room had several beds with straps and some sort of helmet at the edge, where the head goes. You looked at the scientists, and asked: “Where’s Alpha.” When they did not respond, you repeated the question again, louder. They pointed to an open room at the end of the end. Strange you could feel nothing there. But it did not matter. You ran towards the room, your smile already breaking through when you saw a silhouette sitting at the end. “Alpha!” you yelled, finally Alpha. You hugged her almost immediately, even if it only been hours since you last saw her it felt like days.

“Sorry for the wait, traffic was terrible,” you said, already expecting her classic quips. “Come on let’s get out of here,” you said, releasing her from the hug and finally staring at her for the first time.

“Beta,” you hear Kappa say behind you but you ignore her. All you wanted at that moment was stare at Alpha’s eyes again, to tell her how much you care, to thank her for getting you out of here, and also to tell her how stupid she was for going with this plan. To tell her…

Her eyes did not stare back. They did not look back at you, they did not swept you in, caught you in a whirlwind of emotions like they used to do. They simply… pointed at you, pass you. No emotion, no intensity, just emptiness. “Alpha?” you whispered, hoping to get some reaction. “Alpha, come on, we have to get out of here. This was your plan, remember?” you whispered but she did not say anything, she simply looked…

“Beta,” Kappa said again. But her voice was far away.

“Alpha,” you said again, but she did not react. “Alpha,” you said again. And again, and again, and again. Each time louder. You shook her, you begged her, to be there, to be here. “Alpha!” you yelled, but she did not react. You pushed your forehead to hers, trying to find something in her mind. Anything, a hint of the woman she was. But only emptiness remains. A black void devoid of energy and color, an empty shell.

“Beta, we have to go,” you heard Kappa again, her voice weak, almost breaking, her hand on your shoulder.

“No! not without her!” you yelled, pushing the hand away. “Alpha come on. Listen to me, I know you are in there, you have to be in there, you have to be in there, you have to be in there, you have to be- you can’t just-” your voice breaks, your air gets stuck on your throat. “You have to be in there! You have to be in there! You have to! You can’t just leave, you can’t just leave! Not like this Not like-” your voice breaks again. Air once again stuck in your throat.

“Beta,” Kappa said again turning you around. You resist, you scream, you fight her, but in the end, you surrender to her embrace. “I’m sorry,” she said, the weakest you have ever heard her voice. You look at her, straight into her red wet eyes.

“We can’t leave her,” you said.

“We have to. We can’t get her out like this.”

“No! We have to.”

“In this state, she would slow us down. She can’t defend herself, she can’t fight, she can’t run. Think, she wouldn’t want us to get captured because of her,” you shook your head, turning away from her and to Alpha. “This was her goal. To get us out of here, all of us. She wanted us to escape. You especially. If you get captured again, it was all for nothing.” She was right. She was painfully right. Alpha wouldn’t have wanted you to remain here, she would have wanted you to keep going, to live. But… you can’t just… this was Alpha. Your leader, your friend, your partner, your… you knelt in front of her again, staring into her empty eyes. You close your eyes as you kiss her one last time. But she’s unresponsive, empty, her lips don’t even move.

“I’m sorry,” you whispered. “I’m so, so sorry.” But once again, she did not respond. You stood up and Kappa knelt in front of her, hugging her and whispering something in her ear. She stood up, cleaning her face and turning to you. No words. You both turned, ignoring the scientists and heading for the entrance. You sneak a look one last time, and there she remains, Alpha, the strongest person you’ve ever met, still, unmoving, empty, like a doll…


	13. The Rise of Sidestep Part 2: My Name...

**Years ago – The Farm – The night that started it all…**

You fought and ran for the better part of an hour. You searched and searched for Zeta but the place was a mess and fights were everywhere. Every minute you and Kappa were pulled into a battle neither of you wanted to get into in the first place. Eventually, you and Kappa began pretending to be docile Re-genes on the side of the soldiers tracking down the escapees. It worked for a time as the soldiers gave you safe passage but eventually, Slyther passed the order of rounding up all Re-genes and shooting those who refused. That made your strategy useless in less than ten minutes and you were back to fighting your way through.

You were slowing down, there was no denying that. Besides your telepathy, you were just a normal human being, and even at peak physical condition, constant fighting took its toll. But you weren’t worried about yourself, you were worried about Kappa. You’ve seen her fight for hours on end without even a sliver of fatigue, taking on groups of enemies as easily as she breathed. But not this time, this time she was panting, sweating, and slowing down. The wounds she sustained at the hands of Delta’s whip were worse than you thought. You dismissed it at first because the contrast between red and blue was so overt that any wound looked worse than it actually was on a blue Re-gene. But it seemed this time the wounds were as bad as they looked. You finally had enough and forced Kappa to sit down against her complaints.

“We have to find Zeta and get out. We won’t do that by sitting,” she told you as you sat beside her.

“And you will not last long if you keep going like this. Five minutes ok?” you told her. With a begrudging nod, she rests her head against the wall. You did not need to use your telepathy to know what she was thinking about. In the last hour, Kappa has become as easy to read as any other person. But even if she didn’t, you knew because you were thinking about it too. Alpha. You had avoided mentioning her name in your mind ever since… seeing her. Because of exactly this; your chests begins heaving faster, your hand starts shaking, and your eyes grew wet. You shoved down all of those emotions back into yourself. You did not have time to grieve, you were still trapped in the facility and you needed to find Zeta. Thinking about… her will only slow you down. You’ll have time to break down when you escape. If you escaped, you thought.

“What will you do when we get out,” you asked her, making sure not to say if instead of when.

“I…” she pauses. “I don’t know. I haven’t thought much about it.” You replied with a small chuckle. “I always wanted to live by the beach,” she said after a few seconds of silence. You turned to her with curiosity. “I was on a mission in the pacific one day. We were stationed in a hidden facility next to a beach. I was,” she held her chin, thinking. “enamored I think it’s the word, with the how it looked. How it sounds. The waves constantly rising and falling. I loved the feeling of the wind hitting me in the face, my toes digging in the sand. It was… tranquil. Safe. I liked that feeling. I guess I would like that,” she finished staring back at you in gratitude. Now you had more reasons to escape.

Five minutes turned to ten minutes but you would be lying if you did not admit that your body was grateful for it. And Kappa was no exception. Her classic speed returned tenfold, and she was slicing and dicing as only she knew how. But you both knew this second wind would not last long so you increased the speed of your search, asking ally re-genes if they had seen Zeta and leaving as quickly as possible without wasting a breath. Putting all of you had been told, Zeta was heading for the offices, probably thinking you or Kappa or… Alpha were there. So you headed for the offices. Only to be met by the end of a gun.

Right there and then, in front of the office you had been taken from early in the day was her, standing with a gun aimed at you: Vanessa Trevor.

“You are responsible for this?” she asked in her usual calm and collected tone. Even with a red cheek and a swollen eye, she was still the same commanding woman she has always been.

You shook your head as you answered. “Not exactly. It was…” her name got stuck in your throat. You couldn’t say it. You could barely think it without falling into a mess, let alone say it.

“It was Alpha. She wanted us to escape,” you heard your companion say. Trevor chuckles.

“Damn girl knows how to make a fine mess,” she answered, still aiming her gun at you. “Where is she?” at that you both froze. You could hear Kappa’s thoughts just going haywire, like a flood. Your own were no better. Your faces must have given her all the information she needed because she lowered her gun, grieve written all over her face. But just as quickly her face went back to cold neutral Trevor and her gun was up again. “And Zeta?” you both relayed to her that you were still searching for him. For minutes she simply stared at you, gun raised. “Leave,” she finally said. “Just leave and never come back.”

“Miss Trevor,” Kappa begins but Trevor cuts her off with a hand.

“Slyther is in the next hallway. In the prime offices. If Zeta headed there, he’ll need your help,” she said. Without missing a beat you both sprang towards the next hallway. For the first time in the night, you hoped you would not find Zeta. Otherwise, who knows what Slyther would have done. Did Slyther even know who was behind this? If he did, he would want to personally punish you. You bit your lip at that thought. You really, really hoped Zeta wouldn’t be there.

But of course your hopes never really become a reality.

You busted through the door just in time to find Zeta crashing against the wall. He was beaten, bruised beyond recognition. You and Kappa took your stances just in time to see General Franklin Slyther, the man that took Alpha away from you and turned her into a shell. Your eyes narrowed at him just as his narrowed into the two of you.

“I should have known you dogs were coming. This is what I was talking about all this time. Give a dog too much and they’ll bite you,” he said to no one in particular. And that’s when you noticed he was shirtless, pieces of his uniform hung from him, a ripped body covered in surgical scars that confirmed the presence of mods. His left arm, however, was the strangest one; it was not covered, rather its gears and pieces were in the open. You could almost tell how each piece fits into the other. Or so you thought. Instantly his arm began changing, pieces realigning, into a shape you more or less recognized as a gun. A very big gun.

Kappa lunges herself at you, getting you both out of the way as the door behind you was disintegrated by the blast. You looked up just in time to see him aiming at the two of you but right before he shot you were somewhere else. The hangar. For a moment you are confused before you feel someone’s hand on you and turned to find Zeta there, beaten to a pulp, but conscious. You hugged him just as Kappa did the same. But your reunion did not last long as you heard a wall being broken and the ground shakes beneath you. All three of you turned to find Slyther standing meters apart from you.

“You pathetic creatures need to learn your place. You don’t belong out there,” he begins as he aims his gun at you again. You push Zeta away, giving him cover on some boxes while you and Kappa jumped to the other side. You both knew Zeta was not in any fighting shape and he would only get in the way. So you pushed him aside and jumped the other way to lure Slyther to you. “You are tools, weapons, created with a specific purpose. You belong to us!” he yells and shoots again. You both dodged in different directions, Kappa turning invisible in the process. Good, you took the role of the bait.

You dodged and evaded, but his shots became more accurate. And Slyther was no idiot; he knew what you were up to and paid close attention to his surroundings, making sure Kappa did not get the jump on him. You were trapped, stalemated. You needed to get his attention. That’s when you noticed the shields; shields both soldiers and re-genes used against boosted. You have seen these things take Alpha’s punches and survive with only a dent. It could not have taken many shots but it could take enough that Slyther was solely focused on you for several seconds. That’s all Kappa needed, one good second. So you took the shield and raised it. Slyther did not waste long in shooting at you. The shield survived, but the force of the shot pushed you back and might have even hurt your arms but you stood your ground and pushed forward. And again he shot, over and over and over again. Each shot a painful push against you until you felt it, your shoulder cracked under the pressure and you could not hold the shield up anymore.

On your knees, you looked up to find yourself staring down the smoking barrel of Slyther’s gun. “It’s a pity to lose a Beta. You are very difficult to create,” he said. That was it, you told yourself. That was the end, it was all for nothing. Your fighting, your hoping, Alpha’s sacrifice, it was all for nothing. It all ended there. But as always what you think tends not to pass as you heard Slyther’s scream and looked to find his arm resting on the ground in front of you. Yes! Kappa did it. She helps you up and you both take your stances against Slyther. It did not end there, not yet. It could not end like that until you beat him, until you finished Slyther once and for all. All of your life you have lived under his shadow, constantly judged, constantly watched. No matter how many times you succeeded, he would look at you as an enemy. Force you to never show anything other than utter obedience. It ended here.

Slyther screamed at the two of you like a raging beast. “You insolent, defective creatures! You belong to us! We made you!” he charged at you, surprisingly fast for a man his size. Kappa managed to jump out of his way just in time. You did not fare as well and he grabbed you with his remaining hand, slamming you into the ground as if you were a doll. You looked up just in time to see his punch landing on you. “I knew you were defective,” he began as he brought down his fist on you time and again. “you were becoming something you are not supposed to be. I’ll end you and Trevor’s whole charade!” just then a sword embedded into his shoulder, courtesy of Kappa. But Slyther simply turned to her and slapped her away, getting the sword out of his shoulder and tossing it away.

It was like fighting a tank, Slyther could take as much punishment as we could give and he would keep coming. Kappa and you went for every weakness in the human anatomy you knew but nothing brought him down. It was like all of his joints and important organs were armored. It did not help that his punches were like getting hit with steel. All he needed was a good punch in and you would both be on your knees stunned and bleeding. Then an idea came to you, his blaster. His blaster was strong enough to melt a door in less than a second and powered through those shield with little effort. If you could shoot him with that blaster, you might beat him. But it was a big if, and if it did not work you were pretty sure there was nothing that could stop him.

You sent this thought to Kappa’s mind and she agreed. Deciding to play the bait just as she did with Delta, while you snuck through towards the gun. She immediately rushed Slyther, leaping over his incoming punch and slashing his shoulder. As Kappa used her superior speed to keep him at bay, you rolled and jumped from cover to cover, heading for the arm. Kappa was getting slower, you noticed as you glimpsed to the fight. You’ve seen Kappa move so fast she looked like she was teleporting. But here you can see the blur she creates when moving, you see the direction she heads towards for every attack. Even if most people could not fight against this kind of speed, it worried you that you were not seeing that Kappa. But you refocused on your task. You had to for your sake, for Zeta’s sake, and for her sake too. Nothing could be won if you just stood there worrying about what could happen. For any chance at victory, you had to move. Even at this speed, Kappa was an excellent fighter, she could survive all on her own, you had to trust her to do so.

Finally, you reached your target, pulling the arm behind cover just in case Slyther caught a glimpse. You began searching the arm, trying to understand how to use it. Although you were not a tech expert, no one in your team was, you knew enough to understand that this arm, in particular, was an old model with modern additions. Meaning that unlike modern mods, the gun attachment was not shot with brain signals, but the old way: pulling a trigger. Inside the blaster, you find it, the hand wrapped around a handle with the index finger on the trigger. All you had to do was open the hand and aim. Easy. But of course it wasn’t. The hand was firmly wrapped around the handle, too tightly for you to open. Turns out trying to open up a metal hand is not that easy. If Alpha was here, she could have done it. Then again, she could have overpowered Slyther all by herself. Slyther is strong, but you have seen and felt Alpha’s strength, there was nothing he could have done against her. If only you had escaped sooner, or maybe if it was you they reeducated first, maybe she could have…

No, you shook your head. That was not the time to think about it. Even if every fiber of your being wants to. You still had Kappa and Zeta to worry about, they needed you. It’s what Alpha would have wanted. Then you realized that you did not need to free the handle of the gun if there was enough space, you could pull the trigger no problem. You buried your hand into the arm and tested lightly. The trigger was mobile and could be pulled. It required a lot of strength but nothing you had not done before. You sent Kappa the thought to get ready for it. She did, she began jumping around him instead of away from him, keeping him on one location, effectively making him an easy target. You raised the barrel of the weapon as much as possible, enough actually, and in the span of just three seconds you sent Kappa the alert, she jumped out of the way, and Slyther turned just in time to see you.

“Smile you son of a-” you began but never finished as the recoil of the gun was enough to push you back. You crashed against a car as Slyther took the shot head-on, sending him crashing against a truck, which proceeded to explode and envelope him in a curtain of fire.

Your vision was blurred for several seconds but you felt someone’s hand holding you, sitting you up. When your vision returned, you found both Kappa and Zeta in front of you.

“Beta!” Zeta yelled. Kappa looked at you with relief. You’ve done it. Slyther was gone.

“Come on, we have to get out,” Kappa said as she helped you up.

“Go? Where?” Zeta asked, genuinely confused. You could already sense his questions coming a mile away. But they were all overshadowed by one thought of pure unadulterated rage. And then you hear the shot. Neither you nor Zeta could have reacted, but you knew that if she was at one hundred percent, or even ninety percent, Kappa could have. She had dodged bullets at point-blank range no problem. But she was tired, bloodied, weakened. She could not react fast enough as the bullet tore through her back. She almost fell and turned just in time for three more shots to land on her body. She fell beside you, unable to keep going or to fight back. Time slowed down, you turned to see the perpetrator, Slyther, still alive. Most of his upper body was burned, revealing several mods and muscles. You rushed him as he prepares to shoot you, you sent a telepathic blast, a weak but effective attack that stunned him long enough for you close the distance.

You grabbed his wrist and twisted it, causing him to drop the gun. You proceeded to punch him in the face. And again, and again, and again, and again, and again. When he fell to the floor, you stranded him and punched him again. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Punch, punch, punch, punch, punch, punch, elbow, elbow, elbow, elbow. Your mind became focused, determined, dedicated to only one thing. By the end of it, your knuckles were covered in blood, both yours and his, and his face was far beyond recognition. You only stopped when the Kappa’s thoughts echoed in your head begging you to be by her side. Begrudgingly you stood up leaving the beaten general behind.

“Don’t- Don’t you dare turn your back on me,” he said through his broken mouth. “Come back here! You want to be human! Be a human and end this!” You ignored him, your preoccupation was Kappa, not him. “Come back here!” Then he finally got your attention. “She begged me to only punish her you know,” you stopped. “She said, ‘please, leave them alone. I alone planned this no one else was involved.’ But I told her that she would be singing a very different tune soon enough.” You turned, your thoughts set on him. “And after a while she did. She begged us not to do it. To stop. Said she wouldn’t do it again.” You took a knife resting on the ground. “But I told her there was no turning back. She should have thought better of it.” You stood over him as he chuckled. “I wished I had taped her so you could have watched it yourself. The tears running down her face as all her memories were erased. It’s funny, the memories that were resisted the most were the ones with you. But even those fell after a while.” You grabbed him by the throat, raising your knife. “Go ahead, kid. I ain’t afraid of death.” At that, you smile. He’s bluffing, you know it, his head is like an open book to you. He’s trying to convince you that he embraces death, reverse psychology. You can see how it has worked with others in the past, in his long history with the army. But not with you.

“Then why do I sense fear in your mind?” you asked him. His face changed but you barely gave him enough time before you dug the knife deep into his throat. He fights and grasps for air as you watched, but his own blood choked him without remorse. In the end, he was just another person.

You ran back to Kappa’s side, helping Zeta sit her up. You stared at her wounds, trying to figure out something, anything, that could help her. “Come on, we have to get out of here,” you told her but all she did was chuckle.

“Come on Beta. We both know that is not going to happen.”

“Don’t say that, ok? We are getting you out,” at that Zeta nodded to you. And you tried to get her up, but she did not even try.

“I’m done guys, you have to go,” she said in an almost motherly tone.

“No! don’t say that,” Zeta yelled, tears already in his eyes.

“He’s right. We are getting out of here, ok? You can go to that beach you wanted, and build that house. We’ll help you. So come on,” you told her, holding back your own tears. You could not mourn another. Not so soon. Not again. You weren’t even sure you could survive losing Alpha. And now you were supposed to just survive losing Kappa too. No. You could not. But then you felt a reassuring hand resting on your shoulder. She stared at you with tears, the second time that night you had seen her cry.

“That would be great. I would like that, but-” she was cut off by a cough. Cough that shot blood out of her mouth. You knew, Zeta knew, and Kappa knew as well. There was nothing that could be. Searching for the med bay would have been suicide, and even if wasn’t, you could not find it in time before she died. So you simply sat there, the only thing you could do. You brought her face to your shoulder, hugged her, letting her know that she was already there. That she was on that beach, with her friends, her family. All four of you together staring at the tranquil sea. You sent the images to her mind, trying your best not to let her feel your distress, your panic, your sadness. The last thing she needed was to feel how broken you were. She needed to go happy, unburdened. She deserved nothing less.

Her thoughts calmed, she smiled, and her breathing slowed down bit by bit, as you held back your own. Her thoughts vanished one by one, first her training days, then her missions, and lastly the three of you. The image you sent her was the last thing to disappear and then there was nothing. Then you broke, and Zeta broke. And you both held her for minutes hoping against hope that you were wrong. But you were not. She was gone, just like Alpha. Half of your team gone in one night, just like that.

It took a long time before you could both stand up on your own again. But you did, you had to.

“Beta, what are we doing,” Zeta asked. His eyes still red and wet and his voice weaker than it has ever been.

“We are getting out of here.”

“To where?! To do what! And what about Alpha!” that hits you harder than you thought. You forgot he did not know. You turned slowly to him and with as much care as you could you told him what has happened. Alpha’s reeducation, her plan, everything. You could see the wheels turning in his head even without your telepathy.

“That’s why we have to escape. That’s what Alpha and Kappa wanted.”

“No! That is what you wanted!” he snapped at you. “All I wanted was to just be with you guys. But Alpha and Kappa are now gone and you just want to leave?”

“What would you have me do, stay?” you asked him, incredulous.

“Yeah? Why not? Slyther is dead, and I’m sure Miss Trevor will help us.”

“Wake up Zeta we are slaves. People like Slyther will come, even if Trevor stays, there will always be a new Slyther who will take what little we do have. I’m not staying for that!” you yelled at him.

“NO! We were fine. Everything was fine until you decided to do those things with Alpha. That’s what caused all of this.” you scoffed at him.

“Zeta listen, what happened here would have happened anyway. Someone was going to do it anyway. Alpha planned this by herself!”

“Only because of you! And if someone else did it, so what? We would have been fine, all four use, together.” You could barely process what was going on. So you just decided to leave.

“I’m leaving Zeta. Whether you like it or not. Now you can come with me or stay.”

“What! No, please. You can’t leave.” You shut him up with your own voice. Telling him it was done. “If you go they’ll chase you, and if they catch you they’ll reeducate you. Erase all of your memories.”

“I’ll take my chances,” you said not giving an inch. You turned around and headed for the exit of the hangar.

“No, please. Don’t leave me Beta. Beta… BETA!” you stopped. Because he was wrong. Alpha and Kappa were not the only ones who were gone.

“Beta is dead. My name is Jeremy.” That was your name now, the name Alpha gave you, her first gift to you. You’ll embrace it and wear it proudly. You hear Zeta falling on his knees but you kept going. Despite every fiber of your being screaming at you to get back and get him, you kept walking. You couldn’t let yourself be trapped, not anymore. Like you said Beta 010 was dead. Now it was time for Jeremy to rise.

**Woods outside of The Farm**

You traveled for several days, keeping as good care of your injuries as you could in your current circumstances. But eventually, you reached it, a city, the city where you would eventually realize what you were. A city you had visited several times in so many missions, the city of heroes and villains.

**Los Diablos – weeks later**

It was funny how easy you thought things would be when you arrived. Get into the city, get a job and begin a new life. How oh so naïve you were.

You were in an alley, homeless, along with many others. You managed to get some clothing and a tattered jacket with a hood. Turns out getting a job in Los Diablos was not that easy. Many places either were too filled or needed some sort of proof of your education. Which obviously you did not have. So for several weeks, you slept on alleys and benches, and either ate from trashcans or, in more desperate cases, stole it. Thankfully your training was coming in handy. You were slowly devising a plan but it was a long term game. For now, this was your life. And you hated it. Not the part of being homeless, though that has its own issues, but because whenever you were not searching for food, you thought of them. Your team, Alpha, Kappa, and Zeta. You failed them. Zeta was right in some respect. You could have figured Alpha’s plan and stopped it. Or helped her to do it in a more subtle manner. You could have done anything. But instead you let the clues fly over your head, and now here you were, alone.

The tears had become a daily occurrence so you no longer resent it when they come; you let them fall freely as you cuddle in your jacket. Then you hear it, a commotion at the entrance of the alley. Your fellow homeless moved deeper into the alley. You asked one of them what was going on and one of them told you to just hide. You did and watched as a group of three men teamed up on a fourth. Your telepathy had become sensitive that last several weeks so you even when you did not want to, you would catch some emotions from others.

Here you felt them all, the man’s fear, the other three’s intent to kill him. To end him, take his life away as if it was nothing. You ignored it, it was not your problem, it shouldn’t have been your problem. But you kept feeling the man’s terror, his feelings, the feelings of his family. A sister, a mother, and a father. A close friend. All the people that he cares about flash through his mind, people that would miss him, people that would mourn him, people that would be broken over his death; just like you were over Alpha and Kappa.

You shook those thoughts away. Helping this man would not bring them back, nothing could. They were gone and there was nothing you could do about. But you could save him. Save him and make sure that his family and friends do not go through the same thing you did. You could practically hear Alpha screaming at you to do it, she would have jumped at this without a second thought. You stared at your hands and think of raising your sleeves, but you stopped. You did not need to see them, you made your choice.

You stepped out of your hiding spot. As you headed for the group, you raised your jacket’s hood, covering your face in darkness. There were three of them, but even if you were not at one hundred percent their thoughts were painfully easy to read.

“Hey,” you said, getting their attention. “Why don’t you leave the man alone and walk away.” They laughed at you and told you to get lost. You gave them a chance to walk away unharmed but once again they laughed. At that point, it was over.

You kicked one guy in the leg hit the other in the throat. As they both fell back in pain you faced off with the leader. He threw several good punches; some of them landed, but you worked through, just switch it off like they taught you. Reading his next move, you sidestep his next punch locked him in a rear-naked chokehold. In three seconds he was out and once his friends came to his rescue you threw him at them. Once again you sidestep their moves with ease, each attack clear in their minds for you to pick up. You bobbed and weaved, hitting one on the liver and the other in the face. The one fell down in pain while the third one, seeing his friends out of commission, raised his hands in defeat.

“Get out of here, and never come back,” you told him and he ran. Just then you went to the man who was being beaten up. He was scared of you, you could tell just by looking. “I won’t hurt you,” you began, offering him your hand. “I promise.” After several seconds of doubt, he finally accepted it and you helped him. He thanked you and you told him to go, warning him to be careful.

You looked at him as he walked away, wondering what you were feeling. It was not complete happiness, but it certainly felt like something good. Helping him… You wonder if others also go through the same thing, if others lose people and suffer like you do. You go back to all the people you killed. Did they had families? Friends? People that missed them after they were gone? If they were, then you have hurt others. You have hurt others the same way you had been hurt. You could not let yourself do that again. And you could not allow others to go through what you did. You couldn’t. Even if you can never bring back what you had, you can make sure others don’t lose what they have. You have that power… You did.


	14. Revenge: One Month Later

**One Month Later…**

You got to give credit to Zeta. He’s patient. One month and nothing. Not a zip. Just silence. So much silence that you have returned to your deeds as Mastermind as if everything was normal. Your crew seems more comfortable with you. Or less uncomfortable with you. They seem to have accepted what you did at Bloodmoon or at the very least don’t think about it that much. Surely Jane’s presence has helped with that too. She is the more approachable part of you after all.

Argent has been on your ass lately too. She seems a bit more pissed off compared to your earlier encounters. More determined. But not as much as you expected taking into consideration what happened at Bloodmoon.

Red Doll is another one. She has taken to chasing you like a dog chasing a bone. Only that instead of playing with the bone the dog wants to tear it apart, burn it to ashes, and then throw the ashes on a volcano. And that’s on top of all the other vigilantes who now chase you, not just because they want to get a reputation now, but because they now have a reason to hate your guts. If it was reputation as a bona fide villain that you wanted, you have it.

The underworld, on the other hand, has changed their tune and now you are practically the boogeyman. All of the gangs that took your name suddenly disappeared and new gangs emerged to take their place; gangs composed of former members of the previous gangs.

All in all, you are not sure whether to hug Zeta for his unintentional help with the underworld or strangle him for making your current life a living hell with all of Los Diablos heroes on your ass.

**Rangers HQ – Kitchen**

“Everything alright?” Ortega asks, bringing you back into reality. Well, the present reality rather than the past reality.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just, thinking,” you tell her, which is not that much of a lie. These chats have become something of a welcome distraction lately. Whenever you are not planning for your next hit, or waiting for Zeta to make his move, you have come here to either talk or help out however you could. Kept you away from thinking too much about other things. Thinking about other memories…

“What about?”

“Well, a lot. You with all the stuff that’s been happening in the last couple of months.” She stares at you with a soft look, almost as if processing everything that has indeed happened.

She chuckles. “Don’t break your head over it. Trust me.”

“Speaking from experience?” you say with a smirk. She probably is.

“Yeah…” she sighs.

You wonder if you should ask her about it. She was not there but she still saw the end result. And Argent was there too. You know you would not want anyone to witness that, let alone one of your friends. “Want to talk about it?” you finally say dropping your casual tone.

“There’s not much to talk about. I wasn’t there. Angie was, and… well… she’s not exactly sharing it.” In her shoes, you wouldn’t. You can barely think about it without shivering. Or at least you used to. Now you feel… nothing. Almost as if those emotions have been hidden away or gotten erased. You wonder if it has to do with the fact you were the one responsible for Bloodmoon.

“Never took Argent for a sharer.”

“She really isn’t,” she begins and pauses, looking at you with a quizzical look on her face. “A lot like you actually.”

You chuckle a bit. “Really? How?”

“You are both always so reserved and closed. Like, try to live a little but no, you prefer that tiny little world of yours. Powers away, you two are a lot alike.” She takes a sip of her drink.

“If I didn’t know you any better, I’d say you were trying to set us up,” you joke, taking a sip of your drink, hiding your chuckle.

She spits drink, laughing. “Oh god, no,” she begins taking a napkin to clean herself up. “That would be so hard, just to get you two to…” she stops herself, tapping her chin as if deep in thought. “Although…”

“No!” you cut her off a little too quickly.

She simply smiles. “oh come on.”

“No. I’m an asshole and I can barely deal with myself. Let alone two assholes. Besides last I checked, I wasn’t even worth a glance.”

“Angie is not…” she taps her chin. “Ok yeah, she can be. But trust me, once you get on her good side, she’s actually very sweet. Again, kind of like-”

“Don’t say it,” you cut her off, eating the last piece of your chocolate bar and throwing the paper at the trashcan. “I’m not interested.”

“Sure you are. Who are you lying to,” a third voice chimes in. The last voice you wanted to hear today. Jane’s voice. Or rather, the Jane from your head. “Be honest. You want to get on with that silver lady, rip her clothes off and see that sexy body. You want to feel that skin on yours like a-” ‘stop it’ you tell her mentally. At least one thing you have learned in the last month about her.

“Besides, since when do you play matchmaker?”

“Since I’ve had to deal with you two idiots,” she chuckles. You put your hand on your chest, faking offense.

“Julia Ortega, you wound me.” She laughs and takes another sip.

“I’m honest. You need some social life, she needs a social life. You were practically made for each other.”

“I fail to see how that would even work. Besides she’s not my type.” At that Ortega completely spills over her drink.

“You want me to remind you of Luna?” Oh god no. Not that. Luna is an assassin you fought back in your Sidestep days. She was hired to kill some businessmen, and you, like the naïve idiot that you were, jumped in to protect them. Sufficient to say you two did have something of a chemistry. Nothing came of it, of course, but Ortega always teased you about it, even threatened to take a picture and post it on the fridge once. As for her mission, Luna was not known to fail, and fail she did not. One of your several loses you could say. You shake your head in shame as Ortega laughs again.

Silence overtakes for several minutes before a wonder comes to mind. “By the way, where’s Herald?”

“Where else, in a press conference with the Mayor regarding the last couple of months.”

“Poor kid. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”

“Still remember the days when I was the one there?.” You simply nod. Ortega was always called to represent the Rangers and you were always dragged into it; unless you wanted to stay alone with Steel. You made sure to keep yourself hidden so that they wouldn’t find you, but that did not protect you from the reporters, politicians, and others. You feel pity for Herald, even if he looks good on camera and can probably take it, playing second fiddle to the Mayor is never pretty.

“Remember how we always had to sneak away ‘cause your fans would surround us?” you tell her.

She laughs. “Yeah. My favorite one was when we had to use the bike to get away.” You groan at the memory. Ortega was the driver and you were the unfortunate passenger. You never let Ortega drive you in a bike ever again after that.

“You mean the time you nearly killed us?” you chuckle.

“Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad.” You simply stare at her, wishing that you could get in her head to pass on the memory of the day. But it seems the look on your face says it all. “Alright, maybe it was that bad. But admit it, you had fun.”

“Definitely more fun than your disappointed fans.”

“Yeah. Surprised I still have some.”

“You do?”

She nods. “Yeah. Hell, couple of days ago this journalist came and told me he was a fan.”

“huh, Journalist?”

“Yeah, an independent one. He has some magazine apparently.” You sigh while smiling.

“Guess you still have it even in your old age,” you tease. You immediately raise your hands in surrender as she stares at you. “Don’t shoot me,” you say and the two of you just laugh it off. “What’s the name of the magazine anyway? Maybe I’ll check it out.”

“It was…” she taps her chin trying to remember. “…ta. Something with ta. Ta, ta, ta. Zeta magazine.” You feel your heart stop beating, your body freezes over, and the smile you had been sporting up until now fades into a straight line. You manage to hide it all from Ortega and continue.

“What did he looked like?” _Please don’t say smaller than me with brown hair. Please don’t say smaller me with brown hair._

“He was small. Smaller than you actually. And brown hair. Dressed in a white long sleeves shirt.” Your stomach twists and turns. Her voice fades away, everything fades away as you lock yourself in your mind. He was here, Zeta was here. And he spoke to Ortega. Why?

“-member the name, sorry.” Ortega’s voice brings you back to reality. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah, yeah. I just remembered something.”

“Anything important?” you shake your head.

“I’ll be going now. Tomorrow’s gonna be a busy day.” It really will be now.

“Sure. I’ll take you to the entrance.” You feel the instant need to tell her you know the way. But that would just raise some eyebrows and reveal how nervous you are, so you let her.

The walk to the entrance is painful, you count every second that passes, every breath you take, and the people in your way just irritate you beyond believe.

“Well good news is your plan worked,” you hear Jane’s voice right next to you, keeping up with you as a third invisible member to your walk. “Bad news is you should have expected it to be something like this.” You don’t even bother to answer her. You know. You should have predicted this. But you didn’t. You expected him to maybe attack someplace else, maybe give you a call threatening you. You never expected him to actually go after the Rangers. It’s suicide if he wishes to remain unnoticed.

You arrive at the entrance and give your goodbyes to Julia. You wait for her to get as far away as possible before you begin your desperate sprint out. You don’t bother to excuse yourself as you bump into everyone outside, they do not matter at the moment. You have to get back to your hideout and plan out your next move. You’ve had one month to think it up, but you could barely come up with something without knowing what Zeta would try next. Now that you have an idea, you can get something.

He came to Ranger and talked to Julia, specifically her. No doubt because he knows what you two had. So what was his purpose? Information gathering? Makes sense with his cover as an independent journalist. But then why did he name his magazine after himself? That’s just stupid, straight up sloppy. You don’t use something that obvious unless… unless you are not trying to hide. Unless you expect the person to relay the name to an intended target.

Your phone rings. _Damn it, who could be now_. You grab the phone and look at the number. Unknown…

You push ‘send’ and slowly raise it to your ear. “What!?” you say, your voice bitter.

“I like your friend Ortega. She reminds me a lot of Alpha. I see why you fell for her.” your heart stops again as you try to hold back whatever this is that’s rising through your body. “I can see why you replaced Alpha with her.”

“I did not replace anyone.”

“Yes, you did. The rangers, that crew of worthless criminals? They are all replacements for us. Your team. The team you destroyed.”

“I-” you begin but the words stay on your throat.

“If you haven’t been wishing for all of those things you wouldn’t have had to replace us at all because nothing would have happened. We would have all stayed together and alive.”

“I told you to come with me. You refused.”

“Because I told you that there was nothing for us out here. And even if there was, there was no escaping the farm. I mean look at you. You escaped and got captured anyway.” You gulp. The memories of those days coming back to you, but you bury them down. “and now you are a villain, hurting people like that Red Doll girl. You remember her boyfriend, right? How you crushed his skull with your bare hands?”

“What do you want Zeta? If you want me dead I’m right here.” You hear him laughing at the other end.

“You don’t deserve death. Death is a rest. It’s a better alternative than what happened to Alpha. You don’t deserve that rest. No. I want your whole world to collapse on you and for you to sit on that empty world with nothing at the end. Starting now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to play a game, Jeremy.” He says your name with mockery as if it's a filthy thing to say. Your name. Her name. Her gift. “I call it, how fast can you save your friends without them noticing. I mean you could tell them. But then you would have to explain to them who I am and why I’m after you. And how I was sneaky enough to set up a bomb inside their headquarters.” You feel yourself choking.

“What!”

“I put a bomb. Don’t disarm it, and it goes boom, adios half of Rangers HQ and about 10 miles worth of streets and people. Disarm it, and you still have to get it out without anybody noticing. Again, unless you are willing to explain it all to them, it makes no difference to me. And because I’m feeling generous today I’ll give you a general area to search. The bomb is in the visitors’ area. Yeah, I know. Not the most structurally important site, and trust me if it was up to me I would have set it deeper but, you know, security in there is more than even I can handle. And besides what fun is a game if I put it in an impossible area for you to reach. Good luck. You have about thirty minutes before everything goes kaboom.” Before you can answer the line goes dead.

Thirty minutes. Julia is probably still in the visitors' area, and even if she wasn’t, she is still probably close to it. Ten miles radius. You have a slight idea what bomb he is talking about. Another bomb they taught you to build at the farm, meaning that you could disarm it.

“Woah, woah, woah. Hold on a second there,” the Jane presence shows herself again. “You are not going to play his game are you?”

“Does it look like I have a choice?”

“Yeah, you do. Turn around and walk away. It’s not your problem their security sucks.”

You stare at her in disbelieve. And then turn back to the building and prepare to walk in, ignoring Jane’s outburst about how you are going to get yourself, and in turn, her, killed. And she just might be right.

Shit.

You barge through the front door, once again not excusing yourself from bumping into everyone. Whatever you do, you can’t let Julia, Argent, or Steel see you. Thankfully, or not depending on your point of view, the building is crowded today. Probably has something to do with that press conference. You head straight for the visitors' area, not a second to waste.

Now at the visitors’ area what’s left is to figure out where the bomb is. You can’t blindly search for it; it would be a waste of time to do so, especially with the building so crowded. Think, think, think. Where would Zeta put it, where would you put it?

You replay the conversation in your head, trying to find a clue. A hint. A slip, anything. You check your clock, eight minutes have passed since the call. You may only have twenty-two minutes, maybe less if you account for the lost time in the conversation. It has to be something small so that Zeta could have snuck it in. But even small there is the risk of someone finding it, so he would need to put it in a place where no one but you would find it.

Shit. You have nothing. Every area you have visited has spots where it could be found. Maybe up. No, you look up but the ceiling is one piece. No way to tear one part off and plant a bomb. The builders here took precautions. Then Jane screams to you.

“Idiot, can’t you feel that!?” indeed you do. A certain mind that you would recognize anywhere: Argent.

You immediately hide behind a crowd. You hope her vision does not notice you, or if it does, it confuses you with the others. You are not certain it will work but you have to try. If she finds you, even if she ignores you, she would probably tell Julia and she thinks you are already out. You see Argent pass through the crowd, ignoring several of them, and thankfully steps into an elevator. You breathe a sigh of relief. But not for long. Bomb still counting. You check your clock: you have lost four more minutes. eighteen minutes or less. Shit.

You force yourself through the crowd, heart pumping, sweat sliding down your forehead. Where, where, where, where, where, where, where, where, where, where, where, WHERE, WHERE, WHERE, WHERE, WHERE, WHERE, WHERE, WHERE, WHERE… you can’t think, you can’t, not with all these thoughts overwhelming you, all of these people. You had forgotten how much you hated crowds for this exact reason. Their worthless worries creeping into your head like worms, overtaking you, blind to the danger that they are in. They scream and yell, moan and whine about how unfair everything is when they have a FUCKING BOMB THAT WILL KILL THEM ALL. SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!

“You shut up you idiot,” Jane’s voice echoes in your head. You feel her hand on your shoulder and turn to see her. “If you use your powers here you will be found. Keep it quiet. Breath.” You obey her. “Breath. Now calm down and think. I’ll block them out.” You don’t bother questioning her. So far she has only been able to manifest, but not use your powers. How will she block them? You don’t understand but it works, their thoughts vanish from your mind. Even your more negatives thoughts disappear, as if hidden away, only reason, pure cold logic, and reason. You realize the answer was in front of you all along.

The kitchen, the place you have visited the most, where you always end up in, where you have spent all your talks with Julia, and even Herald. However it has many spots where it could be found, Zeta had to hide it in one place no one would check. Under the sink? No, if something broke, they would call someone to fix it and they would check it. Under the table even less, anyone can check that. Inside the fridge? Argent would have found it by now, and something tells you Zeta would have noticed too. Behind the fridge? Like the sink, if the fridge broke, they would move it and find it. But it does have more possibility.

You arrive at the kitchen with eight minutes to spare. Thankfully no one was here. Before checking behind the fridge you check on your eliminated possibilities just to be certain. As you expected neither under the table nor the kitchen sink. You check behind and you hear it, a slow beeping. Low enough to be covered by the fridge’s motor but clear enough if you are looking for it.

You check outside, making sure no one is coming. You check for cameras. There are cameras but you notice they are off. All but one. Shit. Zeta is watching you. You make sure to flip him off just to release some of the rage you are feeling right now. You begin moving the damn thing as much as possible. Damn, it’s heavy. Even as empty of snacks as it is right now, it’s probably the heaviest thing you have had to move out of your suit in a while. Oh, how you miss your suit right now. You could have moved out this thing like a toy. But alas, you can’t. So you hold onto it, bite the scream of your muscles away and pull the fridge away from the wall. Not by much, but enough that you can squeeze through and with an outstretched arm you grab it.

You can’t describe what you are feeling right now, your heart begins beating again, air flows through your lungs again. Finally, you can disarm this thing and get it over wi-

“Oh shit,” both you and the Jane presence say at the same time as you stare at the bomb. The same type of bomb you were taught to make. You could disarm it with your eyes folded. Or in your sleep. That’s not the problem. The problem with this one versus the one he set in your hideout is simple: the substance. The nitro. The formula is highly explosive. After a certain amount of sudden movements, it can explode: with or without detonator. So not only do you have to disarm this thing, you have to carry out the bottle with the substance, making sure not to make too many sudden movements, in a place filled to the brim with people, and then find a way to get rid of it. You take a deep breath. You need it.

As you expected your work is done almost as fast as you begin, little more than thirty seconds to disarm the detonator. Now all you have to do get this highly explosive agent out of the building. Easy…

You put the detonator on one of your pockets. You grab the agent and put your hand inside one of your pockets. You take another breath. At least you no longer have a ticking clock.

You step slowly out of the kitchen, making sure there is no Ranger in the distance. You turn on your ‘don’t look at me’ aura and another ‘get out of my way aura’ to ensure your survival and theirs. Not that is easy. The place is still filled to the brim and people are not fast enough to get out of your way. So you are forced to take each and every step with careful consideration, keeping an eye out for any stray thoughts that may come from any of the rangers. Well except Julia. You can’t feel her…

Shit! You forgot about that!

You breathe again, calming down. You’ll come up with something to say if you find her, you are capable of that much at least.

You continue your way, going through the crowd and into the elevator, which fills just as much. You glue yourself to the corner, making sure no one can bump into you. You step out of the Elevator without missing a beat. That’s it, you are close to the lobby. Just several meters more and then…

You bump into someone. Your heart stops, your breath gets stuck in your throat, and your body freezes…  
“Watch where you are going!” the man yells at you before moving on. You don’t quite process his words. Your mind still realizing you are alive and unharmed. For now.

“OK, we are fine and dandy. Now move it!” Jane says. You don’t have to be told twice. You head for the entrance and finally walk out and down the steps. Yes! You did it! You are out. Now to get rid of it. You can go to one of the docks and throw it away. Or maybe keep it and use it in the future. It’s not every day you get this kind of explosive. Either way, you are out and now all that’s left is to…

You feel the shockwave before hearing the boom. A thundering boom that breaks through your ears. An explosion, far from here. The shockwave takes you down into the pavement. The nitro falls out of your hands. You watch as it bounces once. You don’t wait to see it bounce away you stand up and run back to Rangers HQ, far away, before…

You don’t hear this explosion. Instead, you feel it. You turn just in time for the shockwave to hit you in the stomach, sending you through the entrance and into the lobby. You cover your face by instinct, as glass digs into your back and arms. You roll on the ground and hit something. You don’t know what but it stops you from rolling. Somehow you don’t lose consciousness. Not that it matters.

Your body screams in agony, your vision blurs, and the last thing you want is to get up. But you do. Using your training you push through the pain, ignoring it, switching it off for now. You don’t need it. Right now what you need is to get your head back in the game. Your vision clears and you see the mess. Debris and glass everywhere. People bloodied, some of them on the ground, whether dead or unconscious, you can’t tell.

“Medics, get here and help these people,” you hear the familiar voice of Steel. You turn to see him helping some people while ordering security. Well, no need to hide this time at least. You stumble down but you feel a hand grab you before you fall, a silver hand. Argent.

You turn to see her staring down on you and helping you to sit. “Hey there. How’s your day?” you joke because that’s the only thing that will keep you sane right now.

“I don’t know. You tell me. You look worse than Ortega on a bad day.”

“Ah, finally decided to talk to me? Nice. All it took was an explosion.”

“Keep talking and I’ll drop you on your head.”

“Duly noted.”

“Stay here. I’m sure Julia is on the way.” She doesn’t stop to see your nod, heading towards Steel who relays some orders to her.

“Jeremy!” And there’s Julia. “What are you doing here?”

“Had to go to the bathroom so I came back and… well, you take a look.” It was as good an excuse as you could muster at the moment.

“What happened?” she asks, taking a more professional tone, but still clearly worried.

“I heard one explosion. Far off. I don’t know where. Next thing I know I was flying through the door.”

“There were two?” she asks. You nod. She turns and calls for Steel. He looks at you with that same unreadable face that he always has.

“What is it?” he asks.

“There were two explosions. One was far off.” She tells him. Steel remains thoughtful for a second before turning to you.

“Do you remember the direction of the explosion?” you shake your head. You barely even had time to process there was one. “Try to think. From which side did you heard it?” you do as he says because, as hurt as you are, you are just as curious to know where that other explosion came from. And you get the sense Steel is on to something. You think back to your position, you were looking towards the street, back to the entrance. You heard the boom from your left ear. But you just told Julia you were heading in, so you can’t tell Steel you were heading out.

“I was heading into the building again,” you begin, he listens without an expression. “Right side. I heard the first explosion on my right.” Both Steel’s and Julia’s eyes widen and they look at each other. “What?” you ask, although you might have figured out the answer. Julia turns to you.

“That direction?” she points sheepishly. You nod. “That’s the direction of the-.”

“The press conference,” you cut her off.

Shit…


	15. Revenge: The Voice

**Ranger’s Humvee – en route to the press conference**

You don’t know what exactly drove you to do this. Maybe it’s genuine worry, maybe you are pretending to care, maybe you want to see what Zeta tried here, or maybe a combination of all of the above. No matter the reason, you are here now, seated in the passenger seat next to Julia, who’s driving like the maniac that she has always been. Only this time you do not blame her because she is not running for a shot of adrenaline, she’s running because of worry for her rookie teammate, Herald. 

Steel and Argent remained behind to keep things under control back at HQ. And although officially you are a civilian, and an injured one at that, you have helped enough to get in here. That and the fact that they have no idea what is happening caused Steel to bite back any objections he might have had. For all of his apprehensions regarding you, he has always put them aside when he knew the situation called for it. And in this case, when at least two rangers were needed to keep order and help people in HQ and two were needed to go to the press conference and check on his subordinate and teammate, he had to.

You arrive at a pretty similar scene to the one back in Rangers’ HQ. Debris mist everywhere and dozens hurt and being attended to. Your instant reaction is to scan for Herald. His thoughts you have felt dozens of time by now so he would be easy to pinpoint. And there he was, helping some people up and flying them to the nearest ambulance. He was a bit bloodied in the head and his suit tattered. You let Julia know.

“Herald!” she yells as you run behind her.

“Oh hey, Charge.” A couple of seconds pass before he notices you. “Sides- I mean Jeremy. You came too?”

“I was in the neighborhood.”

“You don’t look so good.”

You nod to him. “Catching an explosion to the face will do that to you.” He tenses when you say that.

“Headquarters too?” You nod again.

“Wei and Angie are taking care of that front. What’s the situation here?” Julia says, a bit of her old marshal tone slipping in.

“Everything just… sort of happened. One minute the mayor was making a speech, the next there was smoke and people screaming and…” Julia grabs him by the shoulders before his panic sets in.

“Herald, it’s ok. Just breath.” He does as ordered and eases up.

“I’ve been trying to help as much as possible but… there’s too many…” he gets cut off by another voice chiming in. Much to both your and her chagrin.

“Charge. Ranger Charge.” The mayor steps in, yelling at Julia. “Ranger Charge, I would like to know what is going on here. Who caused this?”

“We don’t know yet Mr. Mayor, our headquarters were attacked too.”

“What! What do you mean by that? Aren’t your headquarters supposed to be more secure?”

Julia breathes in. Seems she has learned to keep her calm. Back in the day she would have ignored him or pushed him away. “It was at the front entrance, nothing major as far as we know.”

“Good, then you can focus on here. This is the sort of things you are supposed to prevent. What good are you if you-” he does not get to finish as you hear a voice. A very familiar distorted voice. The same distorted voice Zeta used before.

“Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the city of Los Diablos. The city that houses some of the vilest, and disgusting people the world has ever known. This image right now should be the postcard of Los Diablos because it’s the most accurate representation of what you can expect living in this sickening place. A place that houses villains like the Psychopathor, Hollow Ground, and The Mastermind.” You don’t know if him putting you in the same sentence with those two is supposed to be an insult or a compliment. Either way, it does not matter. What matters is what is he after? What’s this display about? His grudge is with you, so what is all this posturing and villain speech about? “So from here on out, I will remind you all of the hell you live in. The Voice of your past made flesh to haunt you for the rest of your lives.”

As soon as he finishes, the mayor wastes no time to talk. “What the hell is this? Another villain? How many more villains are we going to have? This is your fault…” he turns and points to Julia and you just have enough of it.

“Villains will appear with or without rangers Mr. Mayor. You should know that by now,” you tell him without even looking at him. He turns and glares at you.

“And who the hell are you?”

“No one of importance,” you shrug.

“Then you should keep your mouth shut.”

“Ok that’s enough,” Julia interjects. “Mr. Mayor as you have seen the rangers have a job to do and the more you berate us the less time we have to investigate and find the person responsible for this.” He glares at her while you smirk. Getting the cue, he leaves with a snort. Julia turns back to you and Herald.

“So who is that new villain?” Herald asks.

“Someone who’s been causing a lot of trouble in the underworld lately,” you answer. Julia gives you a look.

“How much trouble?” she asks.

“Enough that everybody wants them to leave. Even Hollow Ground.” She smirks at you.

“I thought you were retired.”

“Being well informed helps with that retirement. Knowing when something like this might happen helps me avoid it.”

She nods. “So what have you heard?” You look around and bring them both closer to you.

“I don’t know the why,” you lie. “But I’ve heard that they and Mastermind have been battling it out in the last couple of months. Bloodmoon was the result of one of those fights.”

“That guy, the Voice, was responsible for Bloodmoon?” Herald asks.

You shake your head. “Not exactly. Mastermind was the one who caused the deaths. The Army was apparently a mock to Mastermind, a way to smear their name. And, well, you saw how Mastermind reacted to that. After that, the Voice just disappeared for a month.”

“So what are they after now?” Julia asks the same way she used to do when she was marshal and you two worked together. It really does feel like old times. But it’s not. You hate to do this, but Zeta has stepped up his game and now you have to step up yours. Involving the rangers is how you do that. Not that they are not already involved, considering the bomb at their headquarters, but you are planning to bring them in even more.

You turn back and stare at the disaster, the same way you used to do when you were Sidestep. Stare at the crime scene and put the pieces together. You hear Herald talk but Julia stops him. She had been present at those moments many times and knows what you are up to by now.

This sudden display is too much in your opinion. Zeta never showed much interest in getting attention. All he wants is to make you suffer so towards what end does this works to? The attack on rangers HQ makes sense as a personal attack, but the press conference is a weak target. A target filled with reporters and innocent civilians that have nothing to do with his vendetta and would affect you very little. So what is his goal, what does he hope to accomplish by hurting so many people? The only thing it would show is how far he is willing to go to-

“They are recruiting…” you say as the answer hits you in the head. You turn back to Julia and Herald. She smirking and he confused. “They are recruiting,” you repeat. “They are out of goons and they need more.”

“But why hurt all of these people?” Herald asks.

“Fear factor. Mastermind eliminated most of the Army of Mastermind in one fell swoop. And that terrified the rest of the underworld. No one not currently working for another big villain will go up against Mastermind. So the Voice needed to show how far THEY are willing to go. Make the criminals fear them more than they fear Mastermind.”

“By hurting innocent people?” he asks in disbelief, more to himself than to you.

You nod. “You’ll be surprised how far some will go to get what they want.”

“So what would you suggest?” Julia asks. Now it was the time for the final nail. You prepare mentally to say it. And you can tell she is well aware of what you are about to say.

“As the old adage goes; the enemy of my enemy,” you say. Herald stares in disbelief. Julia simply nods in acceptance.

“Who’s the friend?” she asks, knowing full well your answer.

You turn back to the disaster. “The one who has yet to harm any civilians.”

Herald tenses up again, turning between you and Julia as if trying to wrap his head around what you mean. “What! No! We can’t just-” he begins but Julia interrupts him. You know what she will say. It’s the same speech she gave Steel whenever you had to do it. Back in the day you and the rangers would sometimes have to team up with one or more villains to take out another. It was not pretty and no one was comfortable. But it had to be done. Because it’s always better to be fighting one villain instead of two, and there is such a thing as the lesser of two evils. Not that Julia was not quick to go back to the hunt. So you will have to watch out for that.

After a few minutes, Herald comes around. Not completely comfortable with the idea, as his thoughts are painfully quick to remind you, but onboard.

“Can you get one of your contacts to send a message?” Julia says, sounding a lot more like marshal Charge than anything else now. You nod. _You already have._ “Good. Get to it then. Herald and I will remain here.” You nod again and turn. And then you feel a hand on your shoulder, her hand. “Be careful, ok?”

You chuckle a bit. “That’s my middle name, remember?”

“It is.” She smiles and lets you go.

**Hideout – 6:00pm**

“But boss, they are-” you raise your hand to cut Nehal off. You knew it was going to be hard to convince them of this.

“We don’t have time for arguments Nehal. The Voice is preparing for a war and I’m unwilling to let them finish it.”

“By working with the Rangers?” she says. “My ribs still hurt from fighting that silver bitch.”

“I agree with Nehal here, boss. How do you know the rangers wouldn’t just try to take you down immediately after?” Pelayo asks, taking charge and speaking for the rest of the team.

“It’s a risk we are going to have to take Pelayo. The Voice is far more dangerous than the Rangers, trust me.” He stares at you straight in the eyes, as if trying to figure you out. He seems to find what he was looking for because he nods. You nod back and look at all of them. “Every worry you have about this I already have myself, trust me. But we have very little choice. Our window of time is small. With the bombing of the press conference and rangers HQ, there will no doubt be a line of thugs in front of the Voice’s hideout, waiting to be recruited. We have to act fast.” Pelayo and Ward nod obediently. Nehal nods begrudgingly and Zaza nods sheepishly. You sigh.

“I know what I did,” you begin. “I know you are scared.” you look at every single one of them. One by one your eyes fix on theirs, lowering yourself to their level, not being their boss, but someone closer. “If you want to leave you can do it. I will not hold it against you nor will I chase you. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to…” none of them answer. They stare and wonder, their thoughts jumping from one thing to the other. Pelayo stands up first, followed by Ward, then Nehal, then Rosie, and finally Zaza. In their thoughts you can tell; they are not one hundred percent sure of this, but they are certain enough. They are here for the long haul. You have not lost them yet, nor will you lose them so easily. You can’t help but smirk a bit. You stand up too and give them the order to prepare.

Your room is cold and dark; it has not been opened all day. It’s funny. This room has become more of your room than your apartment. You feel safer here than you ever did back there. You will miss it. In the last month, you have purchased a new building to use as hideout with the money you have stolen. All that’s left is to hire a receptionist to turn people away. Something to worry about later. Right now reminiscing has to be put at the back of your mind. It’s time for Jeremy to give way for Mastermind once again.

“And for Mastermind to do what must be done,” you hear her voice behind you once again. Jane.

“And what is that?” you ask her, not even turning to see her.

“Will you kill him?” You don’t answer. Instead, you open the closet. The armor stands over you like a shadow towering over your small pathetic frame. A shadow, clad in black, with a long flowing cape and a hood that covers its bladed reflective head. The shadow that is the Mastermind. On one side the Rat King squeals in happiness. You rub your thoughts with theirs, like a soft hand petting them. “Will you?”

“I don’t know,” you answer. The truth is you do not know what you will do when you find him. When you beat him and have him at your mercy.

“He’s a threat. One that you can’t allow to keep going.” You fall silent again. You can’t argue with her reasoning. But you still don’t know if you can do it. Alpha is gone, Kappa is gone… Beta is gone. All that’s left of that past is Zeta. Once he is gone it will all be gone. Nothing to connect you back. Is that what you want? Is that what you need?

Right now it does not matter. What matters is that you have to get ready. Before you got here you spoke to your contacts. And apparently, there is a big recruitment camp going on in the middle of the city. That’s no doubt where Zeta is, and where you and the Rangers will attack.

“Fine. But when the time comes,” her voice is now closer to your ear. And then it changes to that of Mastermind. “You better make the right choice.” She disappears. Finally, alone, you stare back at your suit. It’s time to get ready, you have a war to win…


	16. Revenge: Collision Course

****

**Night – Rooftop of an abandoned building.**

After one month, you are once again about to face off against Zeta. And this time you’ll have the Rangers at your side. Or at the least more interested in taking Zeta down than in you.

_Getting a bad sense of Déjà vu_. 

You lost count of how many times the rangers came to your rescue or you to theirs in the past. Or when they came to help you out when you were in trouble with a particular villain. And vice versa. Now here you are again, in the same situation, heading in a collision course with a rival and them coming to help you out. You are glad to have a mask to cover your smirk.

“They are here,” Pelayo announces. You look down to see Steel and Argent. No sign of either Herald or Ortega.

“Any sign of the other two?” you ask.

Pelayo shakes his head. “Negative, sir.”

You gruff. You can’t sense Herald anywhere. Which means he is not here. But Ortega? That’s another story. You can’t read her nor track her. She is perfectly blocked from you. You turn to your crew. “I’ll jump down and talk to them. You stay here and watch out for any activity. If you see something, let me know. If you see me being attacked, prepare cover fire.” All four nod and Pelayo begins relaying orders, putting Zaza on sniper position, Ward on the rear, and Nehal right beside him, covering you.

You jump down, shooting your jets to slow down the fall and land right in front of them.

“The Marshal and the wild car. Has anyone ever told you you make a cute couple,” you begin, covering most of your body with your cape.

“Say that again and I’m going to eviscerate you,” Argent groans, showing her clawed fingers but not elongating them.

“And who would you have left to entertain you?”

“Point taken.”

You turn to Steel. He’s glaring, but also observing as if trying to piece together something. Maybe you. Maybe your suit. Better pull him out of his sightseeing before he finds something to use against you. “What’s the matter? Still grumpy about the affair with Marconi?” He only glares more. “If it’s any consolation, he is still alive.”

“That’s not what we are here for.”

“Indeed. Where’s the other two?”

“Not cleared for active duty yet. Thanks to you,” Argent spits.

“That’s too bad. Could have used the flying boy as a cannonball.” You turn, looking at a building in the distance. Not the same building, but close to the area where it was. The building where everything changed. Where you changed. “The Voice is inside that building. Recruiting.” You don’t even have to turn to know that Steel tensed up a bit. Not enough for Argent to notice, but enough for you. Mostly because you were already expecting it. You tensed when you saw the location too. Seven years ago, that building and this entire area were caught in the radius.

Heartbreak.

You glare. Zeta could not have chosen this place by accident, it must have been planned. Another structure connected to your past, like Bloodmoon. Which means one of two things: either he is more obsessed with you and your life than you first thought, or he is expecting you. Expecting an attack. Never make the same mistake twice. First thing you taught him in your sparring matches.

“Everyone, come down,” you order through your mic. In a coordinated move your crew swings down the building using cables and grappling hooks. Pelayo stands beside you, Ward next to him, and Nehal and Zaza right behind you. You turn back to Steel. “We are ready.”

**Minutes later – outside the apartment building.**

Steel checks another corner. “Clear.” You’ve let him give the orders. Steel is a military man and has a lot of experience. Even when you two did not get along, you could always trust him as a leader. So you made the choice to let him lead. For now. Once you were in the building, however, you have to get to Zeta first. In fact, neither Steel nor Argent can get to Zeta at all. If they do, who knows what Zeta will do. Or say.

Pelayo and Ward accepted the arrangement rather quickly and in fact, you find them working very well with Steel. Nehal and Zaza though, they are a bit more hesitant, and always look at you first before obeying an order from him. Not that you blame them. Or disapprove. The last thing you want them to do is forget who is in charge.

You stare in awe at the building. Not because it is impressing, but because you can feel the multitude of minds inside. At least thirty on the third floor. Nothing major. Nothing You or Steel or Argent have not dealt with before.

Argent turns to you. “Make sure not to run away this time.”

You chuckle. “I make no promises. The second the party starts, it’s the second The Voice learns that we are here.” You turn to her. “And I’m not about to let them escape again.”

Argent eyes you for a moment as if she now understands something about you. She turns back to the building. “As long as you don’t turn it into another massacre.”

“An accident. One I do not intend to repeat.” You turn back to the building. You reach out with your mind again, letting it flow.

There’s twenty more on the fourth floor. Theses ones feel a bit more different. Their thoughts betray a sense of confidence, security. One mind, in particular, has more confidence than anybody else’s. And an ego the size of a continent if you may say so yourself. That floor might be a bit of a problem. This kind of confident mindsets tends to reside on mods. Even Ward has them to a certain extent.

“Find anything?” You turn to Steel.

“What do you mean?”

“You are using your telepathy to scan the building. I can tell.”

You chuckle and turn back to the building. “Have experience working with a telepath Marshal?” at that, you notice a swerve of emotion. From both Steel and Argent. Seems neither of them wanted Mastermind to realize that. Glad to know they care about you. Somewhat. They may just care more about what Ortega will do if anything happens to you.

Again.

You shake those thoughts away from the moment. Now is not the time for that sort of thing. “Thirty on the third floor. Most of them normal goons. Some may be modded but nothing heavy. The fourth floor on the other hand.” You tilt your head a bit. “Well, there’s ten less. But I’m pretty sure most of them are either modded. Or boosted. Or both. And the fifth floor is blocked. I dare say that’s where the Voice is.”

Argent chuckles and grins. “At least it will be fun.”

“That it will.” You turn to your crew. “Take the team inside. Quietly. Take out as many as you can on the way. Again, quietly. I don’t want to hear anything until I start it.” All of them nod and move into the building. “Ready Marshall?”

“After you.”

You chuckle a bit. “Of course.”

**Inside – Third floor**

You are going to have to raise your crew’s salary after this. Out of the thirty goons inside, fifteen are down. All done in silence. “Pelayo, remind me to throw a party for you guys when we are back,” you say through your mic.

“Can’t afford to disappoint, sir. Just imagine what it would do to our reputation.”

You hold back a chuckle and relay the information to Steel. “Give me a minute I can shut down six of them.” Steel stares at you with a look that has him dreading what that means. “Relax, I’m not killing them. Just sending them to sleep for a couple of hours.” He looks no more assured than he was before.

You reach out, an ocean filled with small minds. Incapable of understanding. Of grasping what yours is. The Rat King squeals, both of your minds working in tandem. Like a snake you slither into each and every mind, leaving a small print, something that will react to a simple signal. A blast. A telepathic blast to be precise. Weak telepathic blasts like this will stun an opponent for several seconds. But by leaving these prints, you weaken their minds further. So much that a weak blast will knock them out. Why use a portion of your power when you can weaken them and knock them out with virtually no effort.

_You can end them. Here and now. Those little minds are nothing but cattle. Made to be killed. Get them, grab them by the throat. Send their minds into disarray. Make them wish for that simple release. That release that will end all of their problems. Make them leave. Make them gone._

The Rat King wraps itself around your mind and you wake up. You drifted off, your mind wandered into something else. But what? That voice, it was Jane’s. Or not. It was the Jane specter that’s been bothering you ever since your first fight with Zeta. But you don’t hear her now. You hear nothing else but the worried squeals of your partner. You assure the Rat King you are fine and continue, leaving the final print of your mind on the goons.

You crack your neck as if waking up. “Alright. At my signal, six will go down, you take care of the rest.”

“And you?” Argent questions.

“I’ll say hello to the other guys upstairs. See if I can get them to leave.”

“And if you don’t?” Steel bust in.

“Then the party will begin.” You prepare now, focusing your mind, the blast building up until…

“Now!” Steel and Argent bust into the room. You feel the six minds shutting down, left to dream for some time. Well, not dreaming. Just out cold. Anyway, time to move. You rush through the stairs as the sounds of fighting echo. Most of the screams and grunts coming from people other than Argent and Steel, in fact, you don’t think there are any grunts coming from them at all. _Guess that’s what happens when you bring in two tanks to fight a bunch of weaklings._

The walk to the room filled with twenty goons is much more uncomfortable. You can feel a variety of minds in there, not all of them easy to sneak in and shut down. But you try all the same. Better to shut down a couple of them and fight the rest than fight all of them. They all seem to be suspecting that something is going on but are not alerted yet. Good. Worry makes them more open, pliable to your powers. You take a deep breath and step in.

“Ladies and gentlemen. I am Mastermind. A pleasure to meet all of you.” you bow in an exaggerated manner as they all step back. As you expected many of them are heavily modded. Mechanical arms, legs, eyes, shoulder cannons, you name it. Not all of them military-grade but they probably still pack a punch. Others do not seem to be modded. But they could be boosted. That said the majority are modded and only a few seem to be either boosted or have something up their sleeves.

You wondered earlier why Zeta ordered them in such a manner. The non-boosted and non-modded on the third floor and these guys on the fourth. It seems his priority is to recruit boosts and mods over normal folk. So the unmodded here, if not boosted, must be pretty important.

“In case you don’t know yet. I’m here for the Voice. So step aside and let me get to them.” Some of them obey but others stand their ground. “Unless you want me to do to you what I did to his previous army.”

“Really?” a gravy voice echoes in the room. Next thing you know the ground shakes lightly under you as a giant figure makes way towards you. Eight? Probably nine feet tall? Maybe bigger? You don’t know because right now what has your attention is the… mods? Suit? Seriously you can’t tell. It looks like a suit but then again the guy has tubes and gears puncturing into his neck. Whatever they are those are definitely military grade.

“Who are you? Cheap Psychopathor knock off?” you joke, trying to keep your cool and not show how lost you are on how to deal with this guy.

“Hah, you compare me to that loser? Give me a break.” So this is the guy with the planet size ego you felt earlier. “I am Boxer, The Unstoppable!” He clashes his metal fists. You can feel everyone else’s confidence growing.

“The unstoppable, huh? Yeah, I can think of one person who that title would fit a lot better.” You tilt your head. “And I fight her pretty much regularly by this point.”

“Indeed. That is why I am Lady Argent’s biggest rival. I am her nemesis.” You hold your breath at this, otherwise, you would burst out laughing and never stop. Ever.

“I’m sorry I was under the impression that was me.”

“You,” he says with a mixture of disbelieve and mockery. “A little thing like you?” and he burst out laughing.

“Has anyone ever told you it’s not the size, but what you do with it?” Why don’t you let me show you?”

He stops laughing. “What do you think I am?”

“Someone with more brawns than brain, that’s for sure.”

He glares. “Are you calling me an idiot?”

“My point exactly.” You feel the thought before he moves. So you prepare and dodge the incoming attack. The punch breaks through the ground. “Nice blow. Here’s a cookie.” You extend your hand. He roars and charges at you but shoot your jets and fly over him. He bursts through the wall and leaves you with the rest of the goons. “Any takers?” Some prepare and others charge. You shoot a telepathic blast that stuns most of them and knocks out the ones you prepared earlier.

You let an electric bomb fall to the ground and shoot your jets again, taking to the air as the first row of goons falls down unconscious. “Anybody els-” you don’t get to finish as you feel a hand wrap around your foot and slam you on the ground.

“Now you’ll see who’s the idiot,” Boxer yells as he shoots a punch. You roll to the side, the punch landing right next to you and leaving a hole where your head used to be. You shoot your jets again and fly from under him.

“Ok time out big guy.”

“NO TIME OUT!” He charges and you barely have time to dodge. What he lacks in brains he definitely more than makes up for it in stubbornness and how dangerous that can be. You have to think. But you don’t get the time as an explosion pushes you to the ground and the crowd swarms you. You are still strong enough to shrugs off some of them but too many of them, all of them with different mods. Some slash you, others punch you, and others try to electrocute you. They may not all be that powerful but they distract you long enough that you don’t even process the fact that Boxer is right in front of you, grinning. He punches you and sends you flying to the other side of the room.

Ok, maybe coming alone here was not such a good idea. You thought you could scare them away with what you did at Bloodmoon. You did not expect to find an idiot with a planet-size ego and not have him not being afraid of you, which in turn inspires others not to be afraid. You have to think, fast. An escape route, something that will get you away from this idiot. Wait, the ground. You can use the nanovores to make a hole and land on the floor below. It would hinder your pursuit for a bit, but you have not felt any activity up. Once again, it probably means that Zeta is expecting you. Great. Another thing to worry about.

As Boxer closes in you prepare, putting your palm on the floor below and trusting the Rat King to guide them. The nanovores get to work, and you feel the floor beneath you giving away. Immediately you call them back to your glove. The floor gives away and you fall, landing on your back. Not the most graceful of landings but whatever. You find yourself staring at Steel’s and Argent’s bewildered faces. “Oh hi there. How’s your day? Mine’s being pathetic.”

“What happened?” Steel asks.

“Big guy. Modded to hell. Shit for brain. Gotta give him credit though, guy has a mean hook.”

Argent stares in disbelief. “Please tell me you don’t mean-” she does not get to finish as the ceiling breaks down. “Boxer,” she says with an exasperated sigh.

“Argent! Finally. I’m ready for our rematch! This time I’m much stronger than before. I have modified my mods lift heavier objects, hit harder, and tonight will be the night when I finally beat yo-” he flies off and crashes against a wall. Argent stands where he was, arm extended, fist closed.

“So you two do know each other.”

“Unfortunately.”

“And here I thought I was the only one.” You stand up, finally.

“Uuhhh, don’t worry. You’re the only one that matters.” She gives you a teasing smile.

“So, anything you can tell me about this guy?”

“Highly armored and strong. He used to be a soldier before he stole several mods and went rogue,” Steel reports.

“So those are military-grade mods.”

“For whatever good they do to him,” Argent says, cracking her knuckles. “He also has a knack for escaping. This is the… I don’t know, fifth time he escapes?” She looks at Steel. He nods and readies his weapons as the other mods jump through the hole in the ceiling Boxer just made. The three of you jump into it. Argent handles the brunt of them, taking and slashing anyone dumb enough to stand in front of her. Steel uses his weapons to disable and knock out anyone that slips past her. And you handle the stragglers that are left after all of it is done. In less time than you expected most of them are either injured or out cold.

“That was easy,” Argent remarks. You and Steel look at one another. Why did she have to say that? Suddenly, Steel takes a missile. The explosion sends him back, separating him from the two of you.

“I told you. I upgraded my mods. Now I can take anything you throw at me.”

“Does he have an off switch?” you ask her.

“I’ll let you know when I find it.”

You groan. This guy was becoming more trouble than he was worth. _End him. You can do it. Just let go. You are much stronger._ Argent’s yell brings you back to reality.

“Hey! What are you, sleeping?” You shake your head. “Good. Then help me with this idiot.”

“I didn’t think you required help.”

She laughs. “I don’t. But he’s boring. With you, I can beat him faster. The faster I beat him the less I have to hear him speak.”

“Understood,” you pause. “My Lady.” She groans.

“Hah, need help from your little friend now? Hah, I knew it. You can’t beat me. I am the biggest thing you have ever faced. There is not a single thing you can do to stop me now.”

“Shut up and fight already shit for brains!” you both yell. Instantly he charges. You both dodge to either side. He stops and turns back to Argent. He shoots a fist, but Argent dodges it with grace. She slashes his suit a bit, but nothing major.

“Hah! Even your claws can’t get me!” He’s wrong. Argent could have gone in much deeper than that. So why didn’t she?

“Seriously, are you in love with your own voice or something?” you ask.

He turns to you. “What!”

“I asked if you are in love with your own voice. Because you speak more than a preacher on Sundays.” You glue your hand to a column left of you, without his notice.

“I wouldn’t have to if your tiny brains recognized my superiority.” He smiles.

“Right, right. Is it because you are stupid?” that sets him faster than you thought. This guy has some anger issues to work through. He charges you and you step out of the way as the column disintegrates and the ceiling falls on him. That does not stop him and he powers through the debris. He tries to punch you but you shoot your jets just in time. Just then you see Argent’s silver form right behind him and she slashes. Again a superficial strike as far as you can tell. Was his armor really too much for her? That’s impossible. He turns fast, hitting Argent in the face and sending her flying.

You shoot your jets at max power, turn mid-flight, and land a kick straight into his exposed face. Even burning it with your jet. He screams and stumbles back, covering his face. Once again Argent appears almost out of nowhere and slashes again. Another superficial strike. Or so you thought.

In an instant, you hear Boxer’s armor powering down, the lights on his chest and back turn off, and he falls on his knees. You land, wondering what just happened.

“What?” Boxer and you say at the same time.

“Same thing I always do when fighting him. Cut off the tubes leading up to his power source.” She smirks at you.

“How! I changed it. I made sure they were hidden. How did you know where they were!? How!” He yells. Argent punches him out cold.

“Finally, some peace and quiet.” You say. But he was right. How did she saw it? You didn’t saw anything. It’s that vision of hers. The way she can just see the insides of technology. She can probably see the weaknesses of your suit too. A worry for another time. Right now, Zeta is the priority. Steel shows himself finally. Seems he was hindered a bit with Boxer’s missile. “You missed all the fun.”

“He’s seen three of these fights by now. He knows how it goes,” she chimes in.

“Let’s hope he doesn’t escape again,” he says.

“Yeah sure. Whatever. Let’s move on.” But just as you turn… shit. You have no idea where they came from but currently, you have dozens of goons standing in front of you. “I didn’t felt those.”

“You said the fifth floor was blocked,” Steel says as he takes a stance.

“Yeah, probably should have guessed there were more there.” You take your stance and so does Argent.

“Boss!” you hear Pelayo yell. He and the others stand beside you.

“You can handle these?” You turn to Argent and Steel. Steel nods without looking at you. Argent rolls her eyes but nods too. You turn to your crew. All nod. Good. You are done fighting goons. Even if it’s a trap, you have to get there now. These goons will keep Argent and Steel busy long enough that you can deal with Zeta before they get to him. You run a diagnostic of your suit. Some damage from your fight with Boxer. But you can still work with this. Your weapons are all untouched as well. “Good. I’ll say hello to the Voice from your part.” You prepare your jets.

“Take them alive,” Steel orders.

“I make no promises.” You shoot your jets fly over the goons and through the hole in the ceiling. Time to find Zeta…

And end this.


	17. Revenge: The Rules of Pain

**Night – inside building – en route to the confrontation**

You know sometimes when you struggle to find a way to describe what you feel? How suddenly and out of nowhere there’s a feeling you think has the perfect word but when you say it out loud it does not even come close to describing it? As if the word does not carry the weight of the feeling?

In this very moment, as you walk through the darkened hallways towards an unknown room, that word would be conflict. But it so simple, so formal. Conflict makes it sound as if there’s a disagreement, an argument, a debate. But not this. This dread, this uncertainty, this…

It has no words. You made no promises as to how you would deal with Zeta. You made it sound as if there was a possibility that you would kill him. But…

Can you?

_You have to._

But he’s the last one.

_He’s a threat._

He’s your teammate.

_Was your teammate._

If he is gone, you are the last one.

_So what?_

You don’t want to be the last one.

_That’s stupid._

Are you?

_Yes._

Why?

_Because you are letting your emotions control you. He’s a threat. He needs to be stopped._

Stopped, yes. Killed?

_Death is the only solution._

No.

_Yes._

You can’t kill him.

_Yes, you can._

You won’t.

_You will!_

You won’t.

_Kill him!_

No.

_KILL him!_

No!

_KILL HIM!_

You kick the door in front of you, tearing it from its hinges straight into the ground. As you step in, the weight of the dampeners shows itself, threatening to ground you with the door. But you are not some weakling telepath, you are Mastermind, nothing and nobody can stop you. You focus your mind, encasing it in a cocoon that will alleviate the strain of the dampeners. The Rat King lends its help, making your job a lot easier and smoother and soon your mind is protected. You are limited in this state, your powers no stronger than in your days as Sidestep, but it will do. You are still just as dangerous in this state.

You scan the room. Empty, dark, and without a ceiling. Instead, the moon shines on you like a spectator watching a show ready for the climax. A flicker of curiosity bounces in the air. A thought. From where? You don’t know. What you do know is him. Much like in Bloodmoon, Zeta stands on the other end of the room, like a marble statue, watching. Watching you.

_Kill him._

“Gotta say you have a shitty taste in scenery.”

He chuckles. “I don’t know. I think it’s quite fitting. The place where you became what you are today. The place that released the monster from its leash.”

You glare. “So you do know.”

“It’s a perfect place for your grave, isn’t it? Of course not the actual place. The government took down the entire building. But hey, you do what you can with what you have.”

“So you do intend to kill me? Finally?”

He chuckles again. “Oh no. That would be too easy. And boring.”

“Then who?” you wonder out loud.

He looks up. “Why don’t you stop hiding up there and come down here young lady. I know you are there.”

Oh no. You turn just in time to see a figure jump down from the roof and land on your right.

“Mastermind, Red Doll. Red Doll, Mastermind. Or have you met?”

Emily’s eyes jump between you and Zeta as if trying to piece together what is going on. But you have already put it together. The same trick he pulled when you attacked the Army of Mastermind for the first time. Lured you and Emily into the same place and have you fight one another.

“Stop playing games!” You yell at him.

He laughs. “But games are so much fun.” He turns to Emily. “It’s true sweety. I lured you here with the express purpose of giving you what you have been looking for. Here’s the murderer of your boyfriend.”

Her eyes land on you, tears threatening to fall out, her rage in the air. She turns towards Zeta. “I won’t let you escape simply because of this.”

He laughs again. “You won’t be able to stop me. Just ask him. And besides, why would you risk the chance of taking him down? For me?”

“Why would I believe any word of what you say?”

His stance stiffens. He stares at her. No more mockery in his tone. “Because, like you, he has hurt me. Deeply. We both want the same thing. To take him out and make sure he pays for what he has done.”

Her eyes widen and she turns back to you.

“The people he has hurt deserve justice.”

“Zeta, shut up!” you growl.

“He’s a monster that deserves nothing less than death.”

“Don’t listen to him!”

“Just imagine if he had not existed. Without him, the people we love would still be alive and happy. But thanks to him, that will never be.”

Her mind hardens, her focus clear. You try to reach but the dampeners fall on you like an anchor, only saved from the pain by the Rat King’s quick thinking. Zeta has won.

“I’ll leave you two alone. Sayonara.” And like that he is gone again. You hold back a roar as you focus again on her. Suddenly the anchor is no longer there and your powers are back to a hundred percent. Shit. You played into his hands again.

“Don’t play his game,” you try to reach her again, but her mind is closed. And even if it wasn’t, what could you do? Her mind is a chaotic mess of constant changing thoughts and images. Polymorphs need that malleability to keep control of their bodies. Which only makes your job a lot harder. Even so, you would risk it. Risk getting lost in her head for the hope that you could avoid this fight.

_Kill her._

“So what? So I can play your game instead!”

_ She’s a threat. Kill her._

“I’m not trying to manipulate you. I’m trying to keep you alive.”

“What do you care?” Her tears fall out. “He was a good person. He wanted to help people. He just wanted to make a difference. And you killed him!”

You want to say something, anything, but you cannot. Because she’s not wrong.

Her head falls, staring at the floor. “This city lost someone good. Someone that could have helped. Helped to make this shithole a better place. I can’t be that. I can never hope to live up to that. To him.” She lifts her head, raged tears falling down, glaring at you. “But I can stop you.”

“You are playing straight into his hands.”

She takes a stance. “I don’t care.”

You feel the thought coming but you cannot react. The giant fist comes too fast and you are launched against a wall. She launches herself at you, extending her legs like a grasshopper. You shoot up your jets and fly out of the way, letting her crash against the broken wall. But before you can react, a giant hand grabs you by the leg and brings you down. She’s on you in an instant straddling you and ready to rain down giant punches on you. But before she can do anything, you turn on your taser and land your right palm on her stomach.

She shrieks. The electricity courses through her body and she falls off of you. You stand up and kick her as soon as she stands up. She tries to react but once again you kick her, keep her disoriented. Before she stands up you let a smoke bomb fall. Now blinded, she does not see your attacks, while you easily watch and track her through both your visor and your powers. You land punch after punch. Some she dodges and weaves, as you taught her. Others she blocks and tries to counter only for you to step out of sight.

The exchange continues for a minute before she screams in rage. At that point she expands her body, becoming bigger than the smoke cloud. You try to stay out of sight but she sees you before grabbing you with an elongated arm. She throws you and breaks walls with you, never letting her grip falter. Having enough of this, you manage to grab her hand and electrocute her again.

She screams this time and lets you go. But she recovers quickly and charges at you and before you can react she pushes you through a wall and out of the building. In free fall you turn on your jets but Emily holds on to you, destabilizing you. You crash land, first through a roof and then into the empty streets, ending up in an open space where a building used to be.

You both stand up stunned. You recover before she does. She tries to throw a punch but you sidestep it with ease. She throws another but you dodge again. She throws another and this time you catch it in the palm of your hand. “Play time’s over kid.”

She screams and steps back as she stares at the hand you had just held. A cold, white smoking hand. A frozen hand.

_Yes!_

She throws her other hand, this time making it bigger, but you sidestep it again and grab it by the wrist. Again she screams and pulls back, now both hands frozen.

_Kill her!_

You close the distance fast, moving faster than you ever thought your suit was capable of, and punch her. Once in the face, another one in the stomach. She takes the first two but then the third time she softens her body, causing your fists to bury into her. She kicks you away but you turn on your jets to stop your fall. You charge and grab both of her legs. She screams again as her ankles and feet freeze over.

_Yes!_

You land one hand on her stomach and again you freeze it. She screams and steps back but you don’t give her a chance. You grab her face and bring it closer to yours. “I warned you,” you whisper and lightly freeze her head.

Although the ice melts, you can tell her body is solid and incapable of stretching for at least a couple of seconds, if not minutes. You waste no time. You tackle her and straddle her, and grab her by the neck and raise your fist. It lands harder than you intended, like a rock, but you keep going over and over again. And then you grab her head with both hands, her hair out of its ponytail, slipping in between your fingers.

_Do it._

You stare at her.

_Kill her._

You can end it here.

_Yes._

Freeze her head and crush it with both of your hands. Like her boyfriend.

_Do it!_

You can get rid of this nuisance once and for all to set your sights entirely on Zeta.

_DO IT!_

Zeta. That’s what he wants. He knew she could not win. He knew. He knew you could not get yourself to kill them, Julia, Argent, Herald. Even Wei. But Emily? She’s new; you’ve only known her for a couple of months.

_WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!_

And he would be right. Why should you care about her? She’s just another hero, another naïve idiot waiting to be eaten alive by the real world like you were.

_YES! Do it. It’s a favor. You can save her from all the pain that will come._

But there is no why. You care. You know her. You’ve talked to her, trained her even. But most of all, you know her pain. You know the guilt, you know the desperation. The pit that sinks you.

_NO!_

You stare at her eyes, fear as visible as the moon tonight.

_Stop it!_

You slowly let go.

_KILL HER!_

And you don’t stop her as she instantly kicks you off. Her powers back. She straddles you, staring down with renewed anger and determination. You don’t defend yourself, as she rains down giant fists on your helmet, her screams breaking through your earpieces. You let her. Let her unload all the anger and hatred you have felt before; that you still feel. You don’t stop her as she reaches out for a stone the size of your arm, lifting it over her head, and bringing it down on you. The stone comes again and again and again. A flurry of strikes that would shatter a human skull but your helmet holds on for dear life, trying to protect you. The Rat King squeals and tries to do something but you stop it. You tell it that it’s alright.

It does not believe you but obeys you. The stone comes down again and your visor cracks. You close your eyes as the stone comes down again and cracks the visor more. And more. And more. And more. One hit after the other, nonstop, no end in sight. And it breaks.

The right side of your helmet shatters, pieces falling on all sides. You close your eyes as pieces fall on your face. And soon after you open them and for the first time, you look at her with your own eyes and not Jane’s. Only the left half of your mask remains, while your right side sits open. Exposed. She has stopped. Her eyes darting towards your exposed side, her emotions on overdrive, leaking out of her mind. Rage, hatred, and sadness, all of them in a tornado of desperation. And now her mind throws another emotion into the mix; doubt.

The same doubt you have felt before. When you were someone else. When you were a hero. When you were Sidestep. Doubt. Doubt that the person before you is a monster. For how could a monster have the face of a normal person. It’s easier to call someone a monster when their faces are covered, when they are watched through a screen. But face to face, it becomes a lot harder. Because what stands before you is not a monster, but a person. A normal human being like you. No monsters can ever look like a human being. They have to be different somehow. Because otherwise, what does that say about us?

She lets the stone fall to the side and gets off of you falling on the ground, sitting, staring at you.

“Funny, isn’t it?” you begin as you stare at the moon looking down on you. Your voice a mixture of your real voice and a distorted version of Mastermind’s. “How easy it is to want someone dead. To be ready to kill them.” You sit up, staring at her. “Not so easy when they have a face though.” She does not answer. She stares. A mixture of rage and confusion. She wants to end you, but she can’t. “I was like that once.”

_What are you doing?_

“Long ago. I cared.”

_Stop it!_

“I cared about… life. Because even the monsters had people that loved them. That cared about them.” You stand up, staring at the abandoned area. “I thought if I killed them, I would be hurting someone else. Someone who would cry them. Mourn them. Like I have.”

You feel her mind flare-up. “How can a monster like you ever understand?”

You turn to her. “I do actually. Long ago there was someone I loved. Someone who… She was… she was a hero. And would have been the best hero. That night the world lost a good person. Someone who could have fixed things.” You look up, at the moon. “She would have been the light in this world of darkness. She would have been better than me.” You look back to Emily. “Because unlike me, she would have had all the answers. And she would have never been broken.” Your eyes water, the drops sliding down your cheeks. “Not a day goes by without me thinking that the wrong people survived that night. I should have been the one to… die, not her. In fact, I’m the only one that needed to die. She would have cried for me, mourn me. But she would have moved on. She would have strived. She would have used that pain for something better. She was strong like that.” You chuckle. “If she saw me like this, she would rip the mask off and beat me up. Then she would ask me ‘why. Why have I wasted the chance she gave me?’ And I would have had no answer.” You pause. “But she’s gone. And I can never bring her back. Her or anyone.”

_Stop this!_

“But I can do something else.”

_You are not him._

“I am a monster. If I’m not right now, I will soon be. Because I’ve already sunk into the void. I’m trapped inside my own pain. But you are not there yet.” Her eyes close a bit, but she is not glaring. Curiosity. Confusion.

_You are not Sidestep._

“I will never forgive you,” she spits.

“I’m not asking you to. There is no apology in this world that can ever heal what I’ve done to you. But I don’t want you to be consumed. Sunk into the same pit that I am. Don’t follow your pain. Learn from it, become something better. Not like me. Don’t become me.”

_Sidestep is dead!_

“When you follow the rules of pain,” you pause. “You become its slave. Forever chained to its demands. And what it demands it’s always more.”

She stares at you. “Why are you telling me all this?”

You smile. “The man I was is still alive. For now. I’m doing his final request before he dies.”

Minutes pass, a silent exchange between the two of you, as she makes her choice. She stands up turning her back to you. “One day I will return to this city. And if you are still here,” she turns back to you. “I will take you down.”

You chuckle a bit. “Then you better get in line.” She does not reply. She leaves. She leaves you alone in the quiet night on the ruins of what used to be a building. You open your comm. “Pelayo, how’s everything on your end?”

“Boss? Hey. Everything alright? I thought we lost you.” They almost did now that you think about it.

“I’m fine. How are things looking?”

“Crowd is thinning out. Soon they will all be down.”

“Then leave as soon as possible. Let the Rangers deal with any stragglers. We are done here.”

“Sir?”

You breathe. “The Voice escaped again.”

“Damn it.”

“Don’t worry. I know where they are.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“Understood sir. Just tell us where to and we will-”

“Go back to the hideout. You are not coming.”

“What? But sir-”

“Pelayo, this is personal.” Several seconds pass before he agrees and relay the orders back to the rest.

Indeed you know where he is. Truth is you’ve always known or suspected at least. Ever since Bloodmoon you knew that if he wanted to hide from you he would go to the one place you would never dare to return to. The place that gave you life and trained you to be a killing machine. A soulless machine. But if you want to stop him once and for all, you have to go. You have to end this. No matter how painful. It’s time you stopped running and faced it.

Time to go back to the old Farm…


	18. The Rise of Mastermind

**Night – The Old Farm**  
The structure towers over you, it stares at you, it taunts you, it dares you to go in. To see what is left. To see what you left behind. Its many eyes center on you, its mouth rests open to welcome you. The prodigal son.  
You accept its challenge.   
You stumble against some opened boxes, the guns and other objects they housed scattered all over, covered in dust. One box, you recognize, rests dented, the fabric pushed in from the body that fell on it. Your body. When you fought Slyther, one of his shots caused an explosion that sent you flying and you landed on this box. Your back was a mess after you escaped. Dried oil and gas cover the floor, burned stains decorate the walls jeeps and planes lay crumbled, its pieces all over the place.  
It seems what Trevor said was true. They abandoned the building almost immediately. Didn’t even bother to clean everything. Except the bodies. You stare at a dark stain on the ground where a certain body used to be. You should know, you killed him. Not that this surprises you, they could not leave the body of a general lying here to rot.  
_Even if they should have._

You walk towards the corner of the hangar, where the door to the rest of the facility is.  
“Took you a long time to return, dog,” you hear a familiar voice. You turn around to find the good old general dressed in what was left of his clothes when you killed him. Shirtless, cuts all over, cyborg arm gone, and the stab wound on his neck covered in dried blood. You smirk.  
“There was no reason to. Why would I have returned here when there’s so much more outside?”   
He glares. “And now you are a threat to everything. To my country, to humanity. I was right. I was always right about all of you.”  
“No you were not,” Jane says as she walks past you with a smirk equal to yours. “You were wrong.” She walks towards him with a sinister smile.  
“You attacked a charity event and stole all of its money, beat up the country’s chosen heroes and have murdered dozens in your wake. In what way am I wrong?” he spits.  
Jane, no, you, grin. “This,” she, you, say as you open your arms wide and make him look at all the destruction in the hangar. “All of this was your fault. Not mine. If you haven’t taken Alpha, we would have gotten away without any big problem. But you pushed her. She was my limit. My leash you could say.” You stand in front of him. He towers over you but that makes no difference, you are the bigger one here. “If Alpha were still alive, I would have never become this.” You chuckle. “Then again, even without her she still had a hold on me. For years I thought I could live up to her, be like her. I felt I owed her. But Heartbreak opened my eyes. Nothing really matters. In the end, we are all just a bunch of fleshy things waiting to die.” You laugh.  
He glares. “And what of this exactly proves me wrong?”  
“Man you are dense. I already told you. Alpha was my leach. She would have stopped me. She would have rescued me from them and helped me, stopped me from giving up. But without her, I rose. You took my leash off and set me free! You!” you laugh again. “I exist because of you! Because of what you did! You took the only thing that could stop me. You made me! I am your monster!” You close the distance, your faces inches apart, your grin breaking your cheeks. “And now I will destroy what you loved so much! I will take over everything. Every street, every home, every building, every sector… every person will belong to me. I will take over everything.” You stand back and turn around, looking at Jeremy. “Beginning with Los Diablos. I will cut the head of the snake and replace it with my own. And then I will expand. Expand far beyond anything anybody could ever imagine. And before anybody knows it, I will be the ruler of the west coast.” Your grin grows and you turn back to Slyther. “Then I might even plant some moles in your precious white house. Some puppet politicians. Change their minds to be loyal to me. And I will become the Mastermind behind this country. Maybe even the world.” You chuckle. You go back to Jeremy, to Mastermind, to you.  
“And then nobody will step on me. No one will have the power to ever hurt me again… because I will be the most powerful one around. The world will bow before me.” You grin again. “And you? You will rot in whatever grave you are, knowing that it was all. Your. Fault.” You turn around and walk away, ignoring his yells and insults. His time is long over. Yours is barely even beginning.   
The floor fills with blood, covering your boots as you walk deeper into the hangar and towards the door. Deeper into your past.  
**Hallway – Old Farm Building – Night**  
With each step you take, blood splashes on your feet and the sound echoes in the burning hallway. Bodies lay all over, sunken into the blood. Soldiers, scientists, and re-genes, all lay dead under the blood. These are all the people that died so you would escape, so you would have your life. What would they say if they saw you now?  
“Monster,” one of them hisses.   
“Monster,” another one repeats.   
“Monster,” repeats another, a re-gene this time.   
“You don’t deserve it,” they say.   
“You ruined it all.” Their voices bounce off of the walls, mixing into a chorus of endless accusations. But one. A body rises from the ground. Blood slips down like a waterfall giving away to blue skin. The orange tattoos shine in the darkness in a body covered in bloody cuts like they were the last time you saw them.  
“Kappa,” Jane, you, mutter. Jane, you, grin. “Sorry sweety, but I’m in no mood for talking.”  
“Good. Because I’m not interested in speaking with you either. I want to speak to Beta.”  
Jane, you, chuckle. “I am him.”  
“No you are not,” Kappa spits. “You’re a mask. A mask made to hide the real person.”  
Jane’s face, your face, contorts in anger. But you hold back. Jane disappears and you step forward. “There’s not much to talk about.” Kappa steps closer, a soft look on her.  
“I disagree.”  
“I am what I am. I’ve already fallen.”  
“You don’t have to give up. There is still time.” She puts a hand on your shoulder as you look on in her eyes. “Remember that mission, when we thought Alpha was gone?”  
“I wanted to go back and save her. I was so desperate.”  
“And what did I said?”  
Your eyes water again and the tears slip down. “There’s no true defeat until you are dead.”  
“Do not let this thing control you,” she puts her hand on your armor. You hunch your head over to avoid looking at her. But a hand holds you and lifts your face again, forcing you to see her. You hug her and she hugs you in return.  
“You were my sister and I loved you like one and I’m so sorry for not saving you.” You pause, the moment drags, seconds pass, minutes pass. The fire goes out. The blood begins to dry up. “And nothing will ever erase that mistake.” You pull back from the hug, your muscles strain, your hands clasp together, tears roll down your cheeks in torrents. But they fail. You stare at her worried eyes and wet eyes.  
“Don’t.”  
You shake your head. “I’m sorry. But I’m dying already.” You let go of her hands and turn away. The fire grows bigger, the hallway fills with blood that reaches your waist, and your armor tightens on you. The stench of blood and rot hit you but you are used to it. It’s a familiar smell, a welcoming one. You can hide in it, enjoy its company. It’s easier to get than it is to deny. You like that certainty. So you follow it because at least, you know where this one leads.  
—  
The hallways seem to have no end but you press on even when every joint, every bone, and every muscle scream at you to stop. The fire grows bigger and this time blocks your path. But you keep going, passing through the fire with ease. A current hits you and threatens to take you down and drown you in the blood. But you ground your feet and let it flow through you. It cannot stop you, nothing can.  
_Nothing…_  
As you push through you feel no more resistance. The wildfire no longer chases you and blood stays away, frozen as if it was hitting an invisible wall. You look around, trying to find whatever it is that has caused this. And you see the door. It looks just like it did then, clean and presentable. A smell that enters your nose and makes you feel like laying down comes from it. A sweet, so very sweet smell. Your heart beats faster, your breathing hastens, and sweat drips down. A voice screams at you to ignore it, to keep going, to keep walking towards your target, towards your goal. But the smell tempts you, it invites you, it wants you to enter. To at least experience that one more time.   
You enter.  
The smell only grows stronger as you enter and the door closes behind you. There are no beds, no instruments, no machines to erase your memories. It is all gone. Except for the room at the end. A white light comes from it and despite its intensity, it does not blind you. In fact, you feel your eyesight get better as you walk closer to it. The smell grows stronger too and it becomes sweeter, so much sweeter as you get closer and closer until the light and smell give way for the figure you knew was there.  
“Alpha,” you mutter. She sits there, but not empty and emotionless like she was that night. She smiles and beckons you to get closer. You take your helmet off, you fall on your knees in front of her and rest your hands over her legs as you look her in the eye.  
“It’s been a while,” she says with such a casual tone. No matter how horrible, how unrelenting, or how dangerous a situation was, she always kept her calm and smiled.  
“You mean it’s been a while since I spoke with a ghost.” You chuckle.  
She laughs. “Remember the last thing you told me?” You pause. You call back to the last time you spoke to her. You had almost come to grips with everything, her death, your new life as a hero, and your future.  
“I told you I had fallen in love again. And I didn’t know if it was right because it felt like I was replacing you.”  
“And I told you to keep going. That you could not hold your life back because of me. I wanted you to be happy.” You look at her as you feel the tears falling down again.  
You hug her. “I failed. I failed her and everyone. And now I’m hurting her and everyone around me and I can’t stop it.”  
She hugs you back. You feel her breath besides your ear. “There are things you can’t control. No amount of power will ever make you feel like before.”  
You pull her closer, tighten the hug, and bury your face in her shoulder as the tears fall down more. “I love you and I will never be able to forget you…”  
“…but you were wrong.” You pull away from her shoulder and look at her face, tears begin to slip down her cheeks. Your foreheads rest together. “Of all the right calls and choices you made, this was the wrong one. You should have told us. We would have helped you. I know you didn’t want to risk us but you should have done it all the same. You made the wrong call…”  
“…and you are wrong about me. I could stop it. I know I can. But I don’t want to.” You pull away. “What hurts me is not that I can’t get out. But that I want to stay.” She reaches out and holds your cheek. You rest it on her soft palm as you dream of the dozens of times she did the same in the past.  
“You think you do. But one day…” she closes the distance between the two of you. “…one day you’ll see that you too are wrong.” Her lips press with yours and you kiss back, a soft slow kiss that takes an eternity to let go of. But you do and so does she. “Take care. I will always wait for you.”  
Your hands hold her tight, your muscles strain against your efforts but you pull back. You abandon her light, the sweet smell and step out into the hallway where the blood now reaches your shoulders and the fire surrounds you. But they cannot stop you, nothing can stop you. Your armor tightens around your body, your breath slows down, your heartbeat takes it time. “Enough,” you whisper, not shout because you do not have to. Those who feel the need to show off their power have none. You are not like them. You have true power and a mere command is enough for the blood and fire to retreat.  
You scan with your mind for any stray thoughts in the vicinity. There he is, on the rooftop. Zeta. It’s time to end this. You walk towards the closest stairs, the memories of this building still fresh. Fire and blood retreat with each step you take. _As they should. _  
**Rooftop - Old Farm Building - Night**  
You stand in front of the door to the roof. His thoughts are clear as day. That means he does not have his helmet on. He is easily readable, easily controllable. But you hold back. You look down at your helmet. Kill him. End him.  
You open the door. The air hits you in the face and it brings you back to all of those times you came here. All the shared hugs, all the conversations, all the banter, all the good times.  
Gone now.  
He sits at the edge looking out into the night as you used to do. His helmet to his left side. He knows you are there, you can tell, but he does not stand up. He does not turn. He keeps looking.   
You stand beside him to look at the forest. The breeze is soft, like a soft whisper. A memory comes, one night when Alpha stole a board game and made you all play it here in the roof. Kappa was completely lost, Zeta was to shy to make some moves that would have earned him a couple of victories, but you and Alpha were having the most fun. Whatever happened to that game you do not know. Alpha never mentioned it again, but you could tell she was not happy when you asked her. You smile a bit.  
“So I take it you won.” He does not turn to you.  
You do the same and keep looking at the forest. “Something like that.”  
He chuckles.  
“She’s still alive though. I didn’t kill her.”  
“So in the end, not even that worked.” He looks down. “I can’t beat you. I never will. You were always smarter.”  
“You didn’t beat me because I’m smarter.”  
He looks at you for the first time, confused.  
“Ever since that night, I have had nothing but nightmares and reminders of my failure. A day does not go by where I don’t think I failed somehow. I suspected something, you know. In the last year, I saw Alpha change a bit. She was always a bit occupied or she had something to do or she was too tired to do anything.” You chuckle. “Alpha was never tired. She was always cheerful and happy around us. It was a mask, of course, but the last thing she wanted was for us to worry about her.” You turn to him. “But during those months leading up to that night, she didn’t try to keep up her mask. And I noticed. I noticed, I knew something was wrong. But I didn’t do anything. I could have caught her in the act and demanded an explanation. As good a liar as she was she could not have lied to me if I confronted her.” You look down on your feet. “But I didn’t. For a time I tortured myself for it, thinking I deserved nothing of life. But I met people. People that made me feel I was worth something. I even grew to love someone again. I was ready to move on.” You raise your head to look at the horizon again. “Until Heartbreak. In that building, that day, everything I thought I had moved on from came back in a flood of blood and fire. It was too easy for them to make me want to throw myself out of that window even as I resisted. But Heartbreak didn’t kill me. They did.” You turn back to him, your heartbeat hastens. “They re-educated me.”  
His eyes widen.   
“I don’t know how many times, but they did. Each time, however, I hid a part of myself inside a corner of my mind. And little by little my memories came back. It took a while, but eventually, I came back and got away again. But even with all of my memories intact, I’m not sure I got out of there entirely. You didn’t beat me because you cannot break what’s already broken.”  
He looks at you, eyes watered. He looks down again and closes his eyes. “I met her once after everything. Alpha. We were assigned to the same mission. I tried to talk to her, to see if she remembered. But she was so different. Cold and distant. The only thing that mattered to her was the mission. Whoever she was, it wasn’t our Alpha.”  
You tighten your fist as you try to picture her that way, an impossibility to you. You can never imagine her without anything but a smile. Even a soft one.  
“I miss them. I want to return to those times when were together. All four of us.”  
“There is no turning back…” you mutter.  
He nods. “I know. And that’s why I was so angry. I wanted to blame something, anything. I couldn’t blame Alpha because she was gone. She was not the same person. I couldn’t blame Kappa because she was dead. I couldn’t blame Miss Trevor because she had nothing to do with it. Slyther was dead too. And the farm is…”  
“…the farm is unstoppable. I could only blame you. You who were out there, enjoying your pretty new life without a care in the world.” He laughs. “Shows what I knew. I’m an idiot. Always have been, always will be.”  
“You are not. You’re simply broken.” You turn back to the horizon. “We both are.” You turn around and walk away.  
“Wait,” he yells. You sense his desperation, his desire. “Please, Jeremy don’t go.”   
You stop but do not respond.  
“I’m sorry. For everything. Just don’t leave me alone. Please. Jeremy.”   
You do not respond.  
“Jeremy!”  
“Jeremy is dead.” You raise your helmet over your head. “My name…” you bring the helmet down and the air is sealed inside. What’s left of your visor shows up the HUD signaling the connection is complete. “…is Mastermind.” Your voice a mixture of Mastermind’s, Jane’s, and yours. This is who you are. Beta was the caterpillar, Jeremy the cocoon, and you are the result. The end of the road. The Mastermind of the new world. And Zeta is not a part of it. He does not want to be a part of it. He wants the past, for things to return to how they were. But they never will. And those who cling to the past will be swallowed by it. Only one way, one last thing to do to make sure your past does not swallow you. One last thing.  
_Heartbreak._  
You do not turn. You do not stay. You already know what he will do. Only one step to end it all. You walk towards the door, down the stairs, and out of the building. All of their ghosts stand behind you, watching you. But you do not turn. They mattered to someone else. To Beta 010. To Jeremy Ortiz. But not to you.  
Not to Mastermind…  
**Hideout**  
Your crew does not question as you arrive, helmet broken and silent. They have an idea of what happened. You can tell by their thoughts. They know the Voice will not be a problem any longer.   
You stare at the mirror for a long time. At your tattoos. Not long ago you would have puked or fallen to the ground with panic at the mere sight of them. But not anymore. This is who you are. What you are. A weapon created for a purpose. An object. You smirk. _And now this weapon will be at the top. So much for a worthless dog. _  
You look at your helmet. This is not something that you can fix on your own. Going to have to take it to Mortum. She will enjoy hearing the story of this one. You bring out your cell phone and you find a message from the company dealing with your new purchase. It was time you needed a change in scenery so in the last month you bought a new building where to set your hideout. A bit luxurious if you may say so yourself. But if you are going to be at the top, you are going to have to begin looking like it.   
You are also going to have to hire a receptionist to make sure no one enters uninvited.  
The next couple of weeks are going to be a lot busier.  
**Gym - day**  
But before you do any of that you visit the gym. You are training but your real purpose is to see if someone comes. If she comes. And she does. You turn just in time to see Emily enter through the door.  
“Hey, stranger. Where you’ve been?” you say as you walk to her.  
“Been a bit busy, sorry.” She smiles and hugs you.  
“Hero stuff I presume,” you whisper in her ear.  
“Actually, that’s what I want to talk to you about.”She invites you outside, away from anybody who tries to eavesdrop.  
“So what’s up?”  
She breaths in taking her time. “I’m leaving.”  
“What?” you fake confusion.  
“I’m leaving Los Diablos. I’ll be moving with my family to the east coast for a while.”  
“Is everything alright?”   
She sighs. “I need time to think. To cope. The last couple of months I’ve been…” she breathes again. “…obsessed with making things right by him. So much so I haven’t even thought of myself. I don’t sleep much, I barely even do anything else besides being a hero.” She chuckles. “I even missed my own birthday.” Tears slip down her cheeks. “I have to slow down. And I can’t do that here.”  
“It’s ok…” you say as you put a hand on her shoulder.  
“But I didn’t want to go without saying goodbye. Thanks for everything.”  
“You mean what little I contributed,” you laugh.   
She playfully punches your shoulder. “Shut up. You did good. Sometimes you just need a stranger.”  
“And why is that?”  
“Strangers don’t tell you how long you have had to get over it.”  
“I don’t know I’m sure I remember a few.”  
She laughs with you. “Ok, maybe not all of them. But seriously thanks. Even if it was just training and talking, you helped.” She hugs you. You hug back.  
“By the way when was your birthday?”   
She laughs. “About one month ago.”  
“And how old are you?”  
“Twenty four now.”  
“Well, happy late birthday. Wish I had a present though.”  
She dismisses it with a wave. “Thanks, Jane. For everything. When I come back you’ll be the first to know.”  
**Mortum’s lab**  
“Ma chérie what happened?” she says as she takes a look at the destroyed mask.  
“Pissed off hero who had a vendetta. Don’t worry everything turned out just fine.”  
“I hope so. You keep coming back with this I might as well build you replacements.”  
“That would be for the best, now that I think about it.” If you keep having your helmet destroyed like that, you can’t just sit and wait for Mortum to fix it. Sometimes work will come one after the other. “If you can, build two more.”  
“You have money for that Ma chérie?”   
You nod.  
“You’re sure your boss is not going to punish you spending their money?”  
“Oh they’ll be delighted, trust me.”  
“Oh, I trust you. Not them.”  
“That’s a pretty good idea,” you grin.  
**Streets - day**  
Argent sneaks around in her usual attire, covering most of herself. Otherwise, dozens of people would spot her every day and begin asking her for stupid things like her autographs. Things she did not really have time for. Especially with Mastermind running around. She has not heard of them for a while now. And she is running out of ideas of what to do to find them or lure them. Interviews seemed like a pretty good way. Challenge them to come out and fight her. But they have yet to bite.   
A man stumbles against her and falls. “Damn lady, what are you, a wall?”  
She ignores him.   
“Hey, wait!” He runs up to her.   
“Leave me alone,” she tells him without turning.  
“I just want to talk.” He closes the distance. “Lady Argent.”  
She holds back the impulse to grab him by the throat smash him against the wall. She follows him to an alley and when he turns she notices that he is wearing a domino mask. “Hi. I’m the Handyman.” He extends his hand for a shake.  
“Not interested,” she says and turns around.  
“But I haven’t even said what I want.”  
“You know how many low-level heroes want my help with their problems? I know.”  
“Wait!” He runs up to her and grabs her shoulder. She turns in an instant, grabs him by his shirt, and smashes him against the wall.  
“Don’t touch me. Are we clear?”  
“Yes, yes, alright. Just hear me out.”  
“Like I said. I’m not interested.” She lets him go and turns around.  
“Ok, first of all, I’m not low level. Second, this will interest you. It has to do with Mastermind.”  
She stops and turns slowly. “What?”  
“I want a crack at them too. And I have a plan for it.”  
She steps closer, sizing up her options. “Continue.”  
**Los Diablos, the Millenial Span Bridge.**  
Don’t.  
Don’t fall.  
There’s a low rumbling beneath your feet. Another earthquake, just significant enough to be felt in the steel structure you’re perched on.  
Just another busy morning in Los Diablos.  
Below you, the traffic flows over the Millennial Span bridge like a river of steel; if anyone notices the undulating surface of the road they certainly don’t slow down because of it. The bridge makes a perfect vantage point, not just because of the location, but because of it’s impressive stature. Unlike the smaller, plainer bridges of Los Diablos, this is a modern, gleaming span of steel, arcing. High across the fractured bay. It was built to be a symbol of the rebirth of Los Diablos, as a much for show as to connect the city.  
The Millennial Soan is a sign of confidence, that the city could build something strong enough to withstand both quakes and tidal waves. If the Golden Gate bridge had still been standing up in San Fransisco, they say this bridge would have dwarfed it. They probably added a few feet just to make sure they drove that point home. No cost is too high for bragging rights.  
Above you, the sky is a hazy brown, the smog colored by the rising sun. It’s been a bad couple of weeks, bad enough to raise calls of emission control in the media, but as always, nothing will come of it. Regulation is a dirty word in the Free Economic Zone that the West Coast has become, almost as dirty as taxation.  
You don’t mind. The smog lends a certain ambiance to the day. Things become muted. Indistinct. Muddled.  
You know that feeling.  
Zaza is leaning out the window, gun in hand, the high-tech rifle a dull black shadow against the dirty car. You can’t hear the shots, but you can see the van’s wheels explode, causing it to swerve wildly across the lanes before crashing into the side of the bridge, a hundred yards earlier than you had planned.  
Without hesitation, you jump off your perch, cape fluttering in the wind, a smile hidden underneath your helmet.  
**The end…**


End file.
